


Here For You

by queenhoneebee



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Multi, Pogues (Outer Banks), The Pogues (Outer Banks) Fight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:47:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 59,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26503885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenhoneebee/pseuds/queenhoneebee
Summary: An Outer Banks retelling, but if JJ had a love interest...Strap yourselves in for some slow burn romance for everyone's favorite Pogue.
Relationships: JJ (Outer Banks)/Original Female Character(s), JJ/Kiara/Pope (Outer Banks), Kiara & Pope (Outer Banks), Rafe Cameron/Kiara, Sarah Cameron & Topper, Sarah Cameron/John B. Routledge
Comments: 6
Kudos: 36





	1. S01E01 : PILOT

**S01E01 : PILOT**

John B stood at the edge of the rooftop, overlooking the back deck with a great view of the ocean. He teetered one foot over the edge, testing his balance while drinking from a beer can.

"That's what, a three-story fall to the deck? I give you about a one-in-three chance of survival." Pope looked up at him from where he stood from the deck below, fiddling with an electric drill in his hands.

"Hm." John B licked his finger to test the wind of the air, pretending to entertain the idea. "Should I do it?" JJ looked up from his perch on a lower rung of scaffold between the two other boys. He was casually drinking a can of beer, regarding his friends with mild interest. He leant against the scaffold in front of him, his legs swinging freely beneath him in the open air. His hair was restrained in his old worn fishing cap slung backwards on his head, otherwise it would have been swinging gently around his face from the ocean breeze.

"Yeah, you should jump. I'll shoot you on the way down," Pope agreed, holding up the drill in one hand like a revolver.

John B raised an eyebrow with a grin. "You'll shoot me?"

"Yep."

John B grinned and imitated cocking a finger gun. He let out a low whistle between his lips. "Pew!"

"They're gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers," Kie said from below, exasperated. She appeared on the deck, coming from inside the unfinished house, weaving between scaffolds to stand around her friends.

"Of course. Why wouldn't they?" JJ remarked with a shrug, taking a swig from his beer. Kie was always going on about this kind of stuff. JJ didn't always understand what she was so mad about, and how little things could get her so worked up, but he'd learnt that this was just Kie being Kie.

Kie rolled her eyes with a frown.

"This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about the turtles, I guess?"

"I can't have cold towels..." JJ chimed, a smirk evident in his voice. He liked to wind the girl up.

Kie looked up at John B on the edge of the roof, regarding Pope as he continued to hold the drill like a gun. "Can you please not kill yourself?" she joked, shielding her face from the afternoon sun, cringing as she looked up at John B.

JJ looked up at his friend, too. "Don't spill that beer. I'm not giving you another one." And he wouldn't. Those things were hard enough as it was to lift from his Dad's supply, he'd been treating them like the liquid gold they deserved to be treated as.

John B laughed, but then lost his balance and dropped his beer. JJ laughed "Woah!" The half full can crashed to the deck and spilt. "Oh, shit," John B said mournfully.

"Of course you did. Like, right when I told you," JJ laughed, shaking his head at his friend and taking another swig from his own can.

"Smooth," Kie muttered. She was drowned out by John B's regretful moaning, though. JJ thought he sounded like a whale in mating season. That thought made him grin wickedly.

"A-Plus," Pope added with a slight laugh.

Kie shook her head with the roll of her eyes. "Dumbass..."

"Hey!" yelled a voice from down the side of the house. Pope leant over the patio railing and his brows lifted in mild surprise.

"Hey, uh, security's here." He tapped at the railing. "Let's wrap it up."

JJ shrugged, shifting from his seat on the scaffold. He knew this'd have to come to an end at some point. "Boys are early today," John B said, running a hand through his loose hair.

"Humpty Dumpty, let's roll," JJ said, grinning as he stood up on the scaffold, lifting his legs from the dead air and planting them on the makeshift hold.

"Yeah," Pope agreed.

"Let's go, boys," Kie said easily, her smile infectious. The adrenaline of being caught somewhere prohibited flirted at the edges of her lips, which she bit at to restrain it. It didn't matter how often she was caught out with these boys; she always loved the feeling of being somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. JJ thought that it had something to do with having grown up how she did. This Pogue life was new to her, and never failed to get her heart pumping.

And JJ loved corrupting her.

"Gary, is that you?" JJ called out, taunting the security guard who had caught them.

"Get down," Pope urged JJ and John B, always the more cautious of the group. He had his scholarship to worry about. He couldn't be caught trespassing and risk it being taken away.

"It's me. Gary, good to see you, man!" JJ continued taunting with a laugh as he crouched beneath the railing of the scaffold and began to half swing, half climb down to the decking area. John B was quick to follow him.

"Is it time?" John B asked, his eyes on Kie. She gave him a nod but was mostly distracted by JJ's good-natured bickering with the security guard. JJ had a run in with Gary every few weeks, normally – half-built houses always around here and there, unlocked and ripe for the taking. JJ had scuffed up one too many empty pools with his skateboard, even a dirt bike at one point.

But, now that it was Summer, JJ was Gary's own daily personal headache.

"You're asking for it," Kie told him, at the same time Gary the security guard cursed the boy's name in frustration.

"JJ!"

The group of teens found themselves laughing as they corralled through the glass sliding door that lead from the deck and into the unfinished house.

"Whoo!" Kie laughed.

They cheered excitedly as they ran through the house and down the stairwell to the ground level of the property. In his haste, JJ almost slipped on the last step but caught himself as Kie laughed right behind him. The four of them split up, running around beams and pieces of scaffold to evade the security guards.

"Hey, stop!" Gary called, trying to stop them from escaping. Words could barely be heard over the four laughing teenagers. JJ felt like there should have been some cool escape song playing like in Mission Impossible or something. He often thought about the soundtrack that would play to his life, but then again, his life wasn't all that interesting.

"Get 'em! They're comin' your way!" Gary called to one of the other guards as JJ slipped past one more guy, using a trick leg often exploited by elementary children to dodge others in a game of tag.

"Hey! Stop!" the guard called in frustration, as if simply asking them to stop would make the teens do as he said. It wouldn't. He should have known that by now. JJ had run from them _how many times_ this week?

One guard managed to get a hand around JJ and the boy felt his heart rate rise with a grin as the man grabbed a hold of his shirt.

"I got him!" the guard celebrated. But it was too soon. Like the weasel that he was, JJ managed to twist and maneuver himself from the guard's flimsy grip.

"Not much of a hugger, man," JJ managed to laugh as he escaped and ran down the side of the house, a troublemaker smile glinting at his eyes. God, he loved the chase. This shit was his favorite.

"They're going out front!" the same guard called, defeated, and exhausted from his almost-capture of the infamous JJ Maybank.

JJ grinned as he caught up with his friends. "Go, Pope! Go! Go, go, go, go, go, go!" JJ called, urging his cautious friend over the fence before them. Letting his momentum from his run guide him, he practically flew over the wooden fence like he was a professional free runner. He laughed as he watched Pope land less than gracefully on the grass, essentially getting a mouthful of dirt.

Pope groaned into the ground, but his energy pulled him to his feet. Plus, JJ's less than encouraging words. "Get up, Pope, Fatso's coming," JJ smirked, tapping Pope on the back as he sailed past him.

The guard behind them let out an offended 'Hey!', making Pope laugh as he got to his feet to follow his friend.

"Come here, you little pricks!" Gary called after them.

Looking forward, JJ could see John B and Kie already in their trusty Combi Van. The thing was a piece of shit, but none of the rest of them had a car, so it had always had to do. Plus, it was great for carrying surfboards, so really, they couldn't have asked for much more.

John B honked the horn, making Pope groan as he tried to catch up.

"Bus is leaving!" John B called.

"Come on, boys!" Kie added, before letting out a triumphant whoop as her friends made it to the car. JJ was first in, climbing straight to the back, over old equipment and trying not to step on Kie's feet as he made room for Pope.

Pope flung himself into the open door of the van with a groan and John B stepped on the gas, a laugh filtering through his lips.

As Kie moved to close the car door behind Pope, they could all hear Gary running behind them in protest.

"Hey, hey! Hey! Hey!" Gary called out, starting to run after the moving van. JJ looked through the rear window as he laughed.

"Check out Gary, gunnin' for a raise," Pope laughed. JJ, unable to help himself, moved to the still open door of the van and stuck his head out.

"Come on, Gary!" he taunted.

"Hey! You little pricks!" Gary called after them. John B was laughing in the driver's seat, ignoring Pope and Kie as they told him to slow up.

"You're gonna give him a heart attack," Kie rolled her eyes as she watched JJ tease the man.

"You're so close!" JJ called out to him, mocking him by extending his arm as if to say, 'I'll catch you, just jump!' He grabbed one of the leftover cans of beer with a grin and held it out for Gary to chase like he was a greyhound at the races. Just this once, he'd waste his liquid gold. "You can do it," he laughed, before tossing the can in Gary's direction, satisfied when the man couldn't catch them. "There you go." The can clattered to the ground, busting open and spraying all over Gary's lower legs, making JJ titter with laughter, grabbing his stomach.

As Gary groaned, JJ laughed. "Aww, come on. They don't pay you enough, bro."

Kie sighed and pulled her friend back into the confines of the van. "JJ, stop. Stop."

JJ rolled his eyes at her. "Oh, come on. That sort of initiative is just begging to be punished."

The four friends could hear Gary groaning behind them, watching through the rear window as Gary gave up and leant over his knees to catch his breath. Successful in their escape, the four of them laughed as they drove away. Their celebrations petered out the closer they got to home.

They had to travel all through Figure Eight first, the rich side of Kildare Island and home of the _Kooks_. The island was a part of North Carolina's Outer Banks, only accessible by ferry, and a very popular tourist destination. JJ and his friends didn't live on Figure Eight; no, that side of the island was reserved for those who could afford to buy two houses if it pleased them.

JJ and his friends were cut from a different cloth. They belonged to the working class and went by the moniker 'The Pogues', after _pogies_ , the lesser fish that are thrown back into the ocean. They travelled through the green golf courses of Figure Eight, and past the plantation style mansion homes, before finally getting into the more derelict boroughs of the island.

The part of the island that was littered with fishing shacks and old boarded up houses. The ones with dingy fishing boats slung up aside the house and grass so overgrown it came up to your knees. The Southside – The Cut. Or as JJ and his friends called it – home.

Arriving back at John B's house, affectionately known as the 'Chateau' was where the foursome were finally able to relax. The spent most of their time there because John B's Dad wasn't around, and hadn't been for months – he went missing at sea and had been assumed dead. John B's Uncle – his legal guardian – also wasn't around, instead building homes out of state.

So, because John B's house was a parental free zone, it was basically a big hangout shack. Just the way the Pogues liked it. Here they could do whatever they wanted, _whenever_ they wanted. And an endless Summer was on the cards, even if the looming Hurricane Agatha threatened to tear them down. The Pogues could stand against anything.

§

The morning after Aggie hit, the Outer Banks were a mess. JJ woke to John B patting at his back, asking something about if he'd been outside.

"I have Polio, bro. I can't walk," JJ had muttered his reply, burying his head in the pillow and refusing to let his sleep slip away from him. John B had seemingly taken his reply on board and left him in the house.

As much as he tried to get back to his dream however, it seemed that John B had disturbed him at the perfect place of his REM cycle. With a groan, he got up, and immediately wanted to lie back down.

It came to JJ's attention that it was damn fucking hot. There was practically no breeze, and the heat clung to his movements like a second, very sweaty, skin.

The heat practically buzzed in his ears – though, that could have been the skeeters that had moved from their disturbed marshes that edged John B's house. Sighing, JJ moved himself from the bed/pull out couch and ran a hand through his hair.

If he was going to be up right now, he needed something to dull the dizziness in his head. Hair of the dog seemed appropriate.

He snagged an unopened – now warm – can of last night's six pack and headed outside, through the broken fly screen door that protected the house and patio from skeeters, and stood on the steps to watch his best friend since the third grade attempt to tidy his house somewhat.

JJ could hear the rooster clucking in his pen and felt a smile tick at the corner of his lips. With the raise of his eyebrow, he took a swig from his drink. Then he whistled once he really took in the damage of the hurricane.

There was a tree that had been fully uprooted that was now lying just shy of the house. They'd been lucky it hadn't crushed them in the middle of the night.

"Agatha did some work, huh?" JJ called out, taking another sip of his drink. John B grunted as he pulled branches from out of the _HMS POGUE_ , the small fishing boat that JJ and his friends had claimed as their own.

"Yeah, she did," John B agreed. JJ burped from his beer, unable to help it. It didn't taste great warm, but it was better than any food John B had in his kitchen. Plus, he thought he'd heard John B mutter something about there being no power – back when he was still trying to convince himself that he was asleep. So, there went any chance at a _cold_ beer, anyway...

Thunder rumbled in the distance, which JJ sighed at before moving towards the boat and his friend. They didn't need a second round of Aggie; anything more and the Cut would surely never recover.

"What you thinkin'?" he voiced. John B looked up, pulling more branches from the boat, before finally deciding to get into it to get the rest out.

"I'm thinkin' that storm surge pushed all the crabs out on the marsh maze," John B said. "All those drum are gonna chase the crab."

JJ frowned, still looking weary from having just woken up. "What about the DCS? Wasn't that today?" He already felt like he knew John B's answer before he said it. John B didn't want to go into foster care anymore than JJ and his friends wanted to let him. But they couldn't exactly do much to stop DCS from coming to take him, especially since no one had seen John B's Uncle T in weeks.

"Nah, they're not gettin' on a ferry," John B assured him. JJ knew his words sounded logical enough. And it was true, he doubted that they'd be letting the ferries run this early after a hurricane. The county wouldn't want any tourists to witness the Outer Banks in this state, all dirty and messy with trash everywhere. That'd be shit for the tourism industry. JJ sighed as he thought about how much work he'd probably have to be put to this Summer when all he'd really been hoping for was the chance to surf some great swells and to get drunk every night.

But then, he hadn't been game like John B last night to surf the surge of the hurricane. Some things you just didn't do. John B seemed to survive it okay, though...

"Come on, think about it," JJ's friend grinned. "It's God tellin' us to fish." John B used a branch to gesture to the ocean and JJ couldn't deny him that.

JJ grinned. He couldn't argue with that logic, plus it wasn't like DCS was coming to take _him_ away. He discarded his now empty beer and hopped into the boat, helping John B clear out the rest of the mess before they set out on the canal.

They headed for the drive-through marina to pick up Pope and Kie, and to assess the damage that Aggie had done.

"It's kind of a smuggler's boat," John B remarked as they waded through the marina, eyeing up how everyone else fared in the storm.

"Sure hope Guffy's boat didn't sink," JJ said offhandedly, standing at the helm of the _Pogue_ and looking around. "He doesn't have insurance."

He could hear John B nodding in agreement in the way he said 'Yeah.'

Then, his eyes were on the woman at the end of the nearest pier. "Hi, Miss Amy!" John B called out before he could. "You guys get through it?"

The attractive woman – Miss Amy – looked out at the boys and gave a half wave. "Still here," she called out with a smile, before going back to cleaning some of the rubbish from her nearby boat. The woman was good looking, but then again, JJ liked most of the women he laid eyes on.

"She totally looked at me," JJ grinned, looking back to eye his friend with a smirk.

"I saw it," John B grinned, entertaining him. "Dude, look at this place."

JJ whistled as they surveyed the rest of the marina. Between each pier was piles of floating rubbish and debris. "Agatha, what did you do?" JJ moaned.

John B nodded. "She is a craaaazy lady."

"Hard core." JJ's nose wrinkled at the smell rolling off the dead water.

"Hurricane surge," John B said, like he knew exactly what JJ was thinking. JJ agreed with his friend.

"We'll be cleaning this all Summer," he said mournfully.

John B sighed. "That is my nightmare."

The two boys continued their easy banter as they made their way through the maze of slightly off kilter boats until they made their way towards a familiar seafood restaurant.

"Well, look who we have here," John B voiced with a grin. JJ made a whoop to back him up as Pope looked up from where he'd been hosing out some old seafood buckets out the front of his Dad, Heyward's, seafood place. 

John B cupped his hand over his mouth and shoulder, imitating the static of a two-way radio. "Crrshhh. We have a safety meeting. Attendance mandatory. Crrshhh."

Pope looked at his friends and sighed. "I can't. My Pop's got me on lockdown."

"Come on, man," JJ joined in, then made a two-way radio of his own. "Crrshhh. Your Dad's a pussy. Over, crrshhh," he said, mimicking the static. Heyward himself was walking down the pier with a broom and he looked up with the raise of his brow and a frown on his lips.

"Oh, I heard that, you little bastard," Heyward shook his head. JJ just grinned. He and Heyward had a weird relationship, but Heyward knew JJ didn't ever mean anything he said.

"We need your son," John B called out.

JJ shrugged. "Yeah, and island rules. Day after a hurricane's a free day." Heyward rolled his eyes.

"Who made that up?"

"Uh... Pentagon, I think," JJ said, deadpan. "We have security clearance. I have a card." He filtered around his pockets like he really did have a card to produce to his friend's Dad.

"Pentagon? Y'all think I'm stupid?" Heyward rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

"I'll do it tomorrow," Pope pleaded with his Dad. "I promise. Tomorrow."

"You think— No, no. Hell no. You doin' it right now."

"Get in the boat," John B whispered to Pope, not stopping the boat as they idled past the Heyward pier. Pope had only seconds to make his decision about whether he was coming or not. JJ rolled his eyes.

"Make a run for it, bro. Make a run for it," JJ egged him on, his tone hushed like they were on a secret mission. JJ lived for this shit – slacking off and having a good time doing it. Not like there was anybody on his ass to do work anyway.

"Boy, if you get in that boat—"

Pope ignored his father and dropped the hose to the pier deck. He stepped hastily towards his friends and jumped onto the dingy.

"Yeah! How does that feel?" JJ grinned.

"Go, go, go," Pope whispered.

"Bring your ass back up here!" Heyward yelled after them, but it was already too late. Pope turned back to his father as JJ ignored everyone and looked back out in front of them, swinging an old fishing rope around his head.

"I promise I'll do it tomorrow, Dad."

Heyward sighed at the boys, still angry. "You gonna clean shrimp, clean fish–"

"Love you, Pops!" Pope called out.

"You'll clean your dirty-ass room!" Heyward yelled, brandishing his broomstick with a scowl.

"We'll bring him back in one piece. I promise!" John B called out.

"–And I don't like your friends!" Heyward yelled, shaking his head before muttering to himself about ungrateful kids and bad influences.

JJ wasn't paying attention. This wasn't the first time this had happened – Pope ditching his Dad and his work to come and hang out. He had never understood why Heyward got his pants in a wad over it, when Pope actually always _did_ catch up on all the work he skipped out on. JJ grinned, he didn't really care.

Next aboard was Kie, who brought a cooler of 'juice boxes' along – JJ's favorite. He grinned and pulled an ice cold one from the cooler, snapping the cap off and clinking his bottle against Kie's. The girl was a good addition to their group, he thought. And her cold juice boxes were a hundred times better than the lukewarm one he'd been stuck with for breakfast at John B's.

Not only did having Kie around mean she diversified the conversation, she was easy on the eyes, didn't take any of JJ's shit – which he loved – and she always had access to the best grog on the island, courtesy of her family's Kook lifestyle.

He always wondered why she preferred to hang with Pogues rather than her own rich kind, but he didn't blame her. One conversation with a Kook and he'd want out, too.

JJ grinned as they got further away from the town and out into the marsh. Pope was at the wheel of the boat. JJ moved up the front. "Let me show y'all a party trick," JJ grinned.

He turned back to make eye contact with his friend for a moment.

"Hey, Pope. Can you go a little faster, please?" he asked. He figured if he asked nicely, his friends would be more likely to entertain him.

"Oh, here we go, I'm movin'," John B rolled his eyes, moving to the back of the boat, knowing JJ well enough to predict what was about to happen. JJ smirked. His friends had no faith in him and his 'party trick'. "Doesn't work!" John B called out.

Pope agreed, shaking his head with a grin, rolling his eyes. "We've tried this like 6,000 times..." Pope still sped the boat up anyway.

Kie laughed and JJ shrugged them off. "I got this. It's gonna work!"

JJ opened his mouth and tipped the drink, letting the wind carry the beer to his mouth. He'd say he was having a sixty-percent success rate with the amount of beer making it to his mouth.

"You're getting beer in my hair!" Kie complained, but she was laughing, and she hadn't moved from her spot behind JJ.

JJ powered through, not letting this spout of bad luck get him down. He was determined to finish the bottle and have the remainder get into his mouth. His determination was met with pleads to stop from his friends.

Then, all of a sudden, before JJ could brace himself, the boat shuddered with a groan, the motor rattling as the vehicle was pulled to a full halt.

JJ was still moving though. With nothing to stop his momentum, he flew off the boat, flipping through the air and landing in the water. The water swirled around his hair and ears, making them ring as he tried to make sense of where the surface was, on instinct holding his breath as he got his feet underneath him to kick upwards.

When he made it to the surface, he immediately floated on his back with a groan, his eyes closed to shield his gaze from the blinding sun, and still clinging to his – now empty – beer bottle.

"You okay, JJ?" He heard John B call out. JJ could do nothing but groan.

"I think my heels touched the back of my head." His voice was groggy – waterlogged.

He could faintly hear John B laugh at that. "Pope, what did you do?" JJ managed to ask, lifting himself up and paddling back to the boat.

"Sandbar," Pope supplied, giving him a shrug as an apology. "The channel changed." Right. From the storm. He should have expected this. JJ rolled his eyes at himself, but that really only made his dizziness come back.

"No shit," JJ said.

"Ugh. This is probably gonna mess the whole place up," John B agreed.

"Hey, I saved the beer, though," JJ grinned as he pulled himself alongside the boat and flung the bottle back up onto it, liking the sound it made when it hit the deck. John B rolled his eyes, running his hand through his hair.

"Congrats, JJ."

"Hey, is that a boat down there?" Pope suddenly asked, still looking over the side where JJ had fallen off.

The three friends were quick to question Pope, but sure enough, there was something down there. Whooping and cheering and yelling, they all stripped off and dove down. Unable to hold their breath for too long, they only gained menial glances at the boat, but it didn't matter.

This was one of the most exciting things they'd come across in a while. Way better adrenaline rush than running from Gary at the new estate being built on Figure Eight.

"You guys saw that right?" JJ grinned in triumph as he pulled himself onto the boat. "That's a Grady-White. A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy. That's a primo rig." And something really hard to sink. _How did it get down there?_ JJ was sure that the selling point of a Grady-White was that they were quote unquote _impossible_ to sink...

"Yeah. That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge," John B agreed. "Maybe it hit the jetty or something."

Kie turned to John B, dismissing their discovery in the place of Mama Bear Mode. "You surfed the surge?" she demanded, hands on her hips. JJ just had to laugh.

"That's my boy. Pogue style," he grinned. John B just smirked as Kie was still mad.

"Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat that is?" Pope asked. The three others shrugged, none of them able to give up an answer. They ummed and ahhed about it for a moment before they all decided John B would go down to search for more.

"Well, I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front," JJ grinned at his friend, to which John B just rolled his eyes. JJ was serious, though. They'd only had one mouth-to-mouth scare in the past, and John B had been a horrible kisser – enough for JJ to actually take safety on the waves seriously now...

Kie ended up pushing John B in.

He used the anchor to sink faster, but the water was still too deep to stay down for long. When he surfaced again, he came up with a motel key, but nothing else.

"Guys, we should report the wreck to the Coast Guard," Kie remarked as they started up the boat and made their way back to town. "Maybe we'll get a finder's fee...?"

"Yeah, and not work all Summer." JJ grinned. Free money. He liked the sound of that. The idea of cleaning up Aggie's mess for the next two months was like imagining having all his teeth pulled out at once. "Thanks, Agatha, ya batch."

§

Trying to tell the Coast Guard had been a waste of time. He'd been too busy arguing with a woman about how important her dog's diabetes were to listen to JJ and his friends about a sunken Grady-White.

_His loss_ , JJ thought. One good thing came of it, though. JJ got himself a new pen.

Then, he and John B convinced Pope that searching what was on the other end of the motel key was a great idea. If the Coast Guard wasn't going to listen to them and find out who's boat it was, then they could do it for themselves.

The motel itself though, was complete trash. Aggie had hit it _bad._

"Motel or meth lab?" Kie had remarked. JJ couldn't blame her for thinking it.

"It looks like the type of place someone with a Grady-White would get killed," Pope rolled his eyes. The kid never had been good with this kind of danger. JJ, however, well, this shit was right in his wheelhouse. With a grin, he jumped from the boat to the grass.

"Crrshhh. This is your Captain speaking. _HMS Pogue_ comin' in for landing. Crrshhh." JJ secured the boat so it wouldn't float away, and then John B and JJ ended up as the ones who went to investigate while Pope and Kie acted as lookouts.

"Be careful," Kie said, looking right at John B. "I mean it."

The look shared between them made the air awkward and tense enough for Pope and JJ to avert their eyes.

"Why are all these mattresses out?" John B voiced as they walked the stairs of the motel. JJ knew he wasn't really asking, but he felt the need to reply anyway.

"After a hurricane, they ditch 'em 'cause they're moldy." JJ regarded the trash around them as they tried to find the right room. He decided to mess with his best friend. " _Just be so careful, John B_ –"

"God, you're so weird," John B rolled his eyes.

"–What was that about?"

John B shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe she wants us to be careful?"

JJ rolled his eyes at his purposefully oblivious friend. "Ever since she heard you're being threatened with exile, she's just been, like, _Oh! Be so careful, John B_ –"

JJ grabbed his friend by the shoulders, massaging. John B pawed at JJ's palms, trying to get him to loosen his grip. "Get off."

"– _Just give me that John D already._ Like, when are you gonna swoop on that, man?"

John B rolled his eyes at his friend's antics. "Bro, you know the rule. No Pogue-on-Pogue macking. Besides, you're the one always hitting on her."

JJ scoffed. "Of _course_ I'm hitting on her. She's a super-hot, rich, hippie chick slumming it with us. Why? I can't figure it out either, but who cares, bro? I know that door's locked because I've tried it. Have you?"

John B waved his hand. "You need help. Not a little help, you need _a lot_ of help. It's like every girl who just has a heartbeat, you're like... _Uhh!_ " John B imitated a grotesque display of kissing a girl which made JJ smirk and shrug. He wasn't denying it.

"What? It's not a big deal."

John B cut him off as they made it to the right room. "Is that us? Twenty-nine? This is it."

JJ moved to walk around his friend to the door. "Okay." JJ bobbed his head to his own beat as he knocked a rhythm on the door. "Housekeeping," he said, in a high-pitched voice. He shouldn't have been surprised when there was no answer.

"Should we try it?" John B asked, holding up the key. JJ let him move in front to open the door.

"Yeah. No power. No security cameras. No one's gonna know." Sure as shit, the door swung open into the dark, unused motel room. They walked in easily and began snooping.

"Check the bag. See if there's a name on there somewhere," John B said, motioning to the jacket that JJ had already begun rifling through.

"No name on the jacket," JJ confirmed. "It's a nice jacket though..."

"Denim slides," John B mused as he went through the things on the bed. "Definitely over fifty. He's got New Balances."

JJ moved to the bedside table, excited to find a map with a bunch of coordinates. "Yo, dude, come here. Maybe this is where they were fishing," he said, motioning his friend closer. John B shot him down once he took a look at the map.

"No, that's off the continental shelf. That's Big Swell. Nobody fishes there."

JJ shrugged, abandoned the map, and moved throughout the rest of the room, mostly just talking to himself.

"Coffee," John B said.

"Standard." JJ moved to the bathroom. "Tissues – for when you get lonely... A really awesome Dopp kit you won't let me steal." JJ could practically feel John B rolling his eyes even though his back was turned.

"Yeah, 'cause we're not stealing shit," John B muttered.

JJ shrugged, pocketing the stick deodorant anyway. When he heard something beeping, he turned around to see John B had found the standard safe that motel rooms normally had.

"One, one, one, one," John B muttered lowly. The safe beeped and John B sighed. "One, one, one, two."

JJ rolled his eyes at his friend with a smirk. "Yeah, punching shit at random. That will... _definitely_ work."

JJ went back over to the map, maybe there was something there that he missed. John B quickly joined him, picking up a small piece of paper with a few numbers on it. JJ decided his friend could handle how to open the safe, and he'd busy himself here trying to figure out the map.

"I don't know," JJ mused. "I don't know about the second one. These coordinates, they... Wait. My cousin said you could catch swordfish here–"

"Six, one, six, six, six," John B said lowly.

"–Nah, that wouldn't make any sense. What about a surf spot? That could possibly be it. – That's... Or shoals... Holy shit, is this a surf spot?" JJ grinned at the thought of new waves in new places, and if this was off the continental shelf, then possibly _huge_ waves. His mouth practically watered at the idea. "–Have you heard of shoals?–"

Then the lock clicked. "Uh... JJ?"

JJ nodded, making a noise of acknowledgement. But he was too busy daydreaming about this big swell. _How big_ was John B talking here...?

"You're gonna want to see this..."

JJ turned around, his eyes widening when he saw the wad of cash in his friend's hand. Motivated by the cash, JJ moved towards his friend, crouching down, and peering into the opening he had left for him. His eyes widened when they set on what was left inside the safe.

He reached inside with a greedy excited grin.

"Dude, dude, dude, dude!" JJ exclaimed, his torch shining down on the gun in his hand. "This is a SIG Sauer–"

"Put the gun back, JJ!" John B hissed.

"–This is a fucking spendy gatt, man," JJ continued, ignoring his friend's warnings. "Just... Bam! Bam!" he imitated holding the gun and torch like a police officer and firing it. "Bam! Bam!"

"Hey," John B grabbed JJ by the shirt, already trying to quell JJ's excitement. "We are not stealing anything," he said, as if he could read JJ's mind. JJ couldn't help it, he saw shit sitting there that no one was going to claim and he thought, 'alright, I'll give it a loving home, then.' Why couldn't it be the same for the gun? Whoever sunk the Grady-White _obviously_ wasn't coming back for it.

"Just take a pic of me. Right here..., yeah, dude, like..." JJ grinned, posing with the gun. He tried to do the _James Bond_ pose but he worried he really looked more like one of the _Charlie's Angels_. John B rolled his eyes like he'd never heard of how to have fun.

"You want me to take a picture of you? Make our own incriminating evidence? Is that what you're talking about?"

JJ rolled his eyes but before he could retort to his killjoy friend, they were interrupted by a tapping on the window.

"Wait, what was that?" John B said. Then they were both moving to the window, under the blinds. Kie and Pope were outside, motioning frantically to outside.

JJ thought he saw Pope mouth 'Cops!'

"Shit!" John B said, moving towards the window by the door to peer outwards.

"Wait, what is it?" JJ asked, wanting to know if his lip reading was up to scratch.

"Cops." Well then, apparently it was.

Then there was a knock on the door that made a little bit of pee come out.

"Kildare County Sheriff's Department!" A voice called from outside. JJ had a mental panic as he and John B tried to find a hiding place that wouldn't get them arrested. They ended up climbing out a window and balancing on a tiny shingled roof to hold themselves up and out of the eyeline of anyone who might peer out the window.

"What are you guys doing?!" Pope hissed from below them. JJ tried to shoo them away, motioning for them to be quiet, but his smirk didn't really reassure them. He and John B stayed perched outside while the cops searched the motel room. JJ felt his heart sink when they took all the rest of the cash that John B _hadn't_ taken from the safe.

At least he still had his new gun, though.

Speaking of, the damn thing slipped from his pants and down to the ground, making a loud clanging noise on their perch and most definitely drawing the cop's attention to them hiding outside. _Shit_. This was the end of the road; JJ was sure of it. JJ knew that he'd be going to jail now. He sent up a silent prayer that he wouldn't become someone's bitch.

John B and JJ held their breath, waiting, waiting, and then... nothing happened. No arrest, no nothing. In fact, the cops took their shit and left. It seemed John B and JJ were in the clear. JJ let out a sigh of relief only when he was back in the safety of the _Pogue_.

"Oh, my God," Kie groaned.

JJ couldn't help himself. "Well, that was fun." He chuckled to himself, and at the horrified looks on his friends faces and then shrugged. "Could have warned us sooner, though."

Kie rolled her eyes. "We would have, except Pope was on the math team."

JJ's eyebrows shot up as he grinned.

"You were on the math team?" John B spoke before Pope could retort. JJ grinned, glad he and his best friend were always on the same page about taking the piss out of someone. He was ready for a whole new avenue of teasing.

"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene," Pope said, ignoring their antics. "Did you guys find anything?"

"Did we find anything?" JJ mused. "No, I don't think so. Oh, wait... _yeah, we did_." JJ pulled out the cash and gun, effectively getting the exact reaction he wanted. He grinned when Kie and Pope recoiled in shock.

"What the hell?–" Pope exclaimed. JJ grinned.

"Dude, what?" Kie chimed in.

"Dude, chill. Come on," JJ said, rolling his eyes at Pope.

"–Why would you take that from a crime scene?!"

"Better than the cops having it, bro," JJ reassured him. It didn't do the job. Pope was freaking out about losing his merit scholarship, to which JJ just rolled his eyes at.

John B was grinning along with JJ, seeing the funny in it. Kie didn't think it was so funny.

"You serious?" she shook her head at John B, effectively wiping his smile off. JJ just shrugged, wrapping an arm around Pope.

"Hey, well at least you have us, right?" he grinned. Pope looked like his life was ending.

"I'm living the nightmare."

JJ grinned. _Man_ , his friend was melodramatic. All this over some stolen money and a gun. JJ didn't see the big deal. They sailed back through town, ending up on a pier somewhere where all the cops were asking questions about a dead body.

That dead body being Scooter Grubbs, one of the guys in town who also happened to work for the Camerons – the same rich family that John B worked for.

"He was out during the storm," someone told the group of young Pogues. "Somehow, that dirtbag copped a brand-new Grady-White. Everyone's out looking for it..."

That had set the group's teeth on edge, especially Pope.

Back at the Chateau, he was freaking out.

"Okay, so, um... we didn't see anything. We don't know anything. We need to have total and complete amnesia."

JJ grinned at his friend, watching him pace back and forth from his comfortable old chair.

"Actually," JJ smirked. "Pope's right for once."

Pope gave him a horrified look and JJ shrugged him off.

"See, I agree with you sometimes. Deny, deny, deny..." JJ had been accused of enough things in his lifetime by cops and security guards to know that you should never open your trap because they'll take your words and twist them how they like until it tells the story they want to hear.

"Guys, we can't keep that money," Kie piped up, obviously guilty about their recent looting. JJ shot her a look, one eyebrow raised. He didn't want to give up that money. _No sir-ee._ He found it fair and square, and finders keepers is the rule.

"Not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara," JJ rolled his eyes. He was already thinking about how much of his internet he was missing in this power outage. Oh, to be a rich Kook who could afford a generator. Sigh.

"We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs," Kie insisted. "Otherwise, it's bad karma.

"Bad karma to be implicated in a felony, too," Pope agreed. "We gotta go dark."

JJ grinned. "If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree."

John B sighed from where he stood at the door to the Chateau patio. "I _don't_ agree."

"What?" JJ's jaw dropped. He would've thought John B would agree with him before any of the others. "Why?"

John B sighed, pushing past JJ. "Just think about it," he said. "This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about. Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole. Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas... We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden, he's got a Grady-White...? Just sayin'." He put his hands up to make his point and the rest of them considered it.

JJ frowned.

The issue still had not resolved itself hours later, and the group had migrated to the end of John B's pier to fish. Or rather... JJ and Pope were fishing, and the others were gossiping.

"All right, so think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?" John B prompted. He was perched on a railing with his eyes pinned to Pope, the last of the group to be totally convinced of whatever weird shit was going on with Scooter and the Grady-White.

Pope inhaled sharply. "Prostitution."

John B rolled his eyes. "Square groupers, bro. Okay..., flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ?"

"They were straight smugglin'," JJ chimed in with a grin. Hell yeah, they were. They had to have been.

"Smugglin'!" John B reiterated. "And I guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck."

"Hell, yeah," JJ grinned. If Kie was hell bent on giving that money to Lana, then JJ could at least get on board with exploring that boat a little more.

It wasn't until they were all back in the house again, maybe an hour before sundown, that Pope was finally on board with going back to search the Grady-White.

"For the record, if that _is_ a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it... it probably belongs to someone else–"

"Minor details," Kie interrupted him.

"–They _could_ come looking for it. Taking it would be catastrophically stupid."

"Right," JJ agreed, he knew that Pope needed to voice all of this stuff more for himself than any of the other Pogues – they were already on board. This was Pope's last-ditch attempt at talking himself out of it all. "Well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time." He grinned, holding up the money from the motel, splaying it between his fingers. "All we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then, we just lay low. Just act normal."

"Right," Pope sighed. "...And how exactly do we do that?"

The group looked around at each other for a moment, until Kie got that light in her eyes that told JJ she'd just had a genius idea.

"Kegger?" she grinned. JJ wanted to sing. That girl could read his mind, he swore it.

§

Here's something JJ always thought about whenever he came to a kegger or a party on the island. He recalled John B had called it a 'three-layer burrito' at one point. And at The Boneyard the next night – a stretch of sand invaded with old sea-weathered tree trunks – the three layers of John B's social burrito could definitely be seen.

As JJ stood with John B at the keg itself, pouring beers and handing them out easily in the light of the afternoon sun, JJ scanned across the faces surrounding them. You had the rest of the Pogues – the working class who lived around The Cut – The Kooks from Figure Eight, and the 'Tourons' as John B would so eloquently put it – the kids who were here on vacation with their parents and somehow caught wind of the local bonfire happening.

Getting lost in this crowd would be an easy alibi for JJ and his friends, as well as providing them with something to do. They'd used some of the motel money to score the keg and keep lips sealed so that the cops wouldn't come to break up the party.

They had the surf, the sun, and the sand as their view. And tonight, an oddly cloudless sky meant that their options were limitless.

As JJ handed out beers, the faces merging into one after the other after the other, there was only one face that made him do a double take. While JJ wasn't one to shy away from the ladies, this was one who at one point he wasn't sure he'd ever set eyes on again. A Pogue in Kook's clothing, JJ almost didn't recognize her on first glance. Yet, here she was, standing right in front of him, her darker blonde tendrils of hair moving easily in the sea breeze.

The golden hour sun did wonders for that tan, and JJ couldn't help that he was staring.

"Katie Daykin?" JJ said, finally managing to find his voice as he blinked away his mild shock. Katie wrinkled her nose slightly, smiling shyly and nodding once. His eyes roamed over her figure, noting the black two piece she wore, sheathed by a white see-through tank-top and little denim shorts that bared her midriff. JJ knew he was staring but he couldn't help it – she looked great, he had never been one to deny it.

With her hands in the back pockets of her shorts, she lifted herself onto the balls of her feet before back down, shifting as she darted her eyes around. JJ shook his head slightly. His staring was bothering her. He couldn't help it though; he hadn't seen her around in months.

"The one and only," she gave him a shy grin, her face tilted slightly upwards so that JJ could see the smattering of freckles across her nose and exposed shoulders.

"Wow, you look..." he trailed off into a whistle, which made her blush slightly. JJ couldn't be sure. The sun was setting behind her so it was a little hard to tell. "What's it been? Like a year and a half since you've been around The Cut?"

Katie arched one eyebrow with a curious smile, shrugging one shoulder and tilting her head slightly. "Yeah? I guess..."

JJ grinned. She was staring back at him, too, checking him out. He could see it in the way her eyes dipped up to meet his. Albeit, she was a little more subtle than he'd been – his tongue had practically wagged at the sight of her – but he was flattered all the same.

"Well, it's good to have you back," he grinned, deciding that he'd have to corner her later to chat her up. The look she was giving him certainly made him think she'd be into it. "Beer?"

"Please."

JJ made quick work of pouring her a drink, making sure to get rid of some of the foam, letting it spill over his fingertips before he held the cup up towards the girl. Taking it with a smile, she sipped at it, cringing slightly at the taste.

"Mmm, warm beer," she smirked. "My favorite." JJ couldn't help but grin. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see over her head, the line of impatient Kooks forming behind the girl, desperate for a free drink.

"Hey! You guys finished eye fucking so we can all get a drink or what?" The voice cut through the air, and made Katie avert her eyes from JJ as she realized they were talking about her – embarrassed. Feeling slightly miffed by it, JJ just rolled his eyes and stuck his middle finger out towards the voice.

"You're welcome to find some other keg to poach, Kelce!" Katie seemed to smirk at his brazen attitude before stepping away. As JJ absentmindedly poured a drink for the next person in line, his eyes were on her back as she walked slowly away to find somewhere to sit.

"Hey, Daykin, don't be a stranger, yeah?" He called after her, not knowing what had urged him to do it. He was glad he did, though, because Katie turned to catch his eye, taking steps backwards instead.

"Sure thing, Jay," she smiled, giving him a mock salute. JJ grinned, but his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"It's JJ."

Katie grinned at that. "Right." Then her back was turning again. He smirked as she walked away to take a seat by the water, nearest a group of Pogues from school. JJ smiled to himself, handing out more drinks in silence. He didn't know what had made him correct her, maybe it was the thought that she didn't really know his name – but he wanted her to...

It was only later, when it got dark and someone had started a bonfire, that JJ had gathered enough courage to go and sit by Katie. She was alone before the bonfire, minding her own business. JJ wasn't sure that she had any friends on Kildare anymore, at least not after she'd disappeared for so long.

She was hunched forward on her log, her eyes on the fire that sometimes sparked blue or green with the salt dried driftwood that someone had let aflame. The colors danced across her features, he noticed, making shadows in her dark eyes.

She didn't look up when he sat down beside her – possibly too close, but he'd had too many beers to remember that some people liked their personal space. He liked that she didn't move away. Though, maybe she was just being polite. Either way, he liked the warm skin of her arm brushing against his.

"You know, I almost didn't recognize you before," he said. Katie didn't look up from the fire, but a grin lifted to her lips.

"Oh, is that what that stalled response was?" she smirked, making him chuckle to himself and take a swig from his cup. He noted that hers was empty and dropped to the sand at her feet.

"Can you blame me? I mean, they make you look good but, you're bordering on Kook clothes here..." He eyed the beaded necklace she wore flush against her neck, the studs in her ears and the ring in her nose. They suited her...

She looked up at him then, catching his eyes. Feigning shock with a hand over her heart, she gave him a mock gasp. "How dare you," she grinned. "I take offence to that."

With a self-assured grin, JJ just rolled his eyes. Now that he'd led the conversation with her clothes, he couldn't help but stare again. _Had she always looked this good?_ JJ couldn't be sure. But something about it was doing it for him – the curly blonde -almost light brown- hair, the dark eyes, the sun-kissed skin with wayward freckles. "No, but seriously. I haven't seen you around in a while..."

Katie shrugged, her eyes back on the fire. "Yeah, I had some family stuff going on."

JJ nodded like he understood, because he kind of did, though he didn't think that his interpretation of 'family stuff' would be what she was talking about. As far as he knew, her parents were kind people. She didn't elaborate any further, instead giving him some side eye. "What about you?" She asked, her voice interested as she raised an eyebrow and bumped her shoulder against his. "You still strolling the marsh with John B?"

JJ grinned – reflex at the mention of his friend. "Yup. He'd never survive without me," he laughed. "Pope joins us most days too when we can pry him away from his Dad. Kie, too. She'll do anything to get away from Figure Eight."

Katie raised her eyebrows at that. "Kiara Carrera? She rejected the Kooks? Wow..."

JJ smirked as he thought about his friends. "Yeah. She had some falling out with Sarah Cameron and joined the dark side. Hasn't looked back since."

Katie smiled. The way it reached her eyes made JJ want to stare at her for a long time. Talking to her was easy, why hadn't he done it years ago? Katie Daykin had always served somewhat as a mystery to him. Kind of a loner, but kind and sweet.

"Good for her. We have more fun on this side of the island anyway..." the girl trailed off.

"Fuckin' oath," JJ laughed, raising his drink towards the fire before taking a swig. He could feel Katie rolling her eyes next to him, but he figured it was more of a good-natured reaction rather than anything else. "I mean, just look at the crowd we've brought down to the slums out here..."

Katie rolled her eyes again at that. "The Cut is hardly the slums. Let alone The Boneyard."

JJ shrugged. "Could've fooled me..."

Their conversation was easy after that. They spoke about random things, not really anything of real substance. Surfing. Aggie. Complaining about more work over the Summer. JJ's busboy job at the Kildare Island Country Club. JJ didn't mind. Now that he knew she was back in town, he knew he'd have more time over the Summer to get to know her. That was a weird thought for JJ. He wasn't usually the type to spend time _getting to know_ someone. This was new. Exciting.

When a few other guys from school came to sit around them for conversation, JJ turned away for just a second to talk to someone about the class they'd both almost failed a month prior. When he turned back, Katie had disappeared from his side. JJ felt his shoulders slump slightly. Trying to ignore the twinge of disappointment that coursed through him, JJ looked up only to catch a glimpse of her back by the keg, pouring herself another drink, he shrugged it off. He watched for a moment as she seemed to walk alone to the water's edge where she stood with her toes in the wet sand as she stared easily out to sea, a hand in her back pocket.

_Curious_ , JJ mused, before turning back to his other friends with a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

He lost himself in their conversation as Nathan told some story about getting chased by a bullshark in the marsh. You always heard stories like that around the OBX. JJ liked to think that everyone's stories were all about the same shark, and that Big Bobby – the name JJ had affectionately dubbed the shark in his mind – liked to nibble on human flesh.

Amusing himself with the thought of Big Bobby getting a taste of Nathan's leg, JJ was distracted with their conversation as he sipped easily from his solo cup. And then later, when the stories of Big Bobby had petered out into mindless bitching about next-year's teachers at the high school , JJ found himself distracted by the mild commotion by the water. Topper Thornton was trying to get Sarah Cameron down from a lifeguard tower as the girl stared out to sea. JJ felt him shaking his head to himself. _Kooks_ , he thought.

It was hours later that JJ noted Katie hadn't come back to the bonfire, and JJ had gotten himself a few more drinks. He'd even been drunk enough to offer one to Sarah Cameron. He blamed that on the alcohol. Then, of course he'd had to antagonize Topper and John B had stepped in.

When the fight broke out, JJ felt his head was too dizzy to really comprehend what was going on. Sarah was screaming, and so were Pope and Kie. Topper made some snipe about Big John - John B's Dad - and John B tackled him. JJ didn't blame him. Big John had been great, and someone disrespecting his disappearance was just _not_ going to fly.

If John B hadn't hit him, JJ would have stepped in to do it. Topper wouldn't be allowed to get away with that shit. But then he'd started holding John B down, forcing his head below the water and not letting him up, and JJ hadn't been able to think.

That was his best friend – his _brother_ – and if he didn't do something, right now, Topper would kill him. Something in JJ just _snapped_. Knowing it was a stupid idea to bring it, and too wasted to care about the consequences, JJ pulled the motel gun from his bag and stormed up to Topper, pressing the muzzle against the back of the other boy's head.

"Yeah, you know what that is," JJ muttered. "Your move, _Broski_."

"Chill!" Pope yelled, the crowd that had previously been chanting for a fight was now gasping and taking steps back from them.

"Stop! JJ!" He could hear Sarah screaming. JJ didn't let up. "JJ, put the gun down!"

JJ could feel himself sneering. "Did you say somethin', princess?"

Topper was a blubbering mess beneath the gun, but at least he'd lifted John B's head from the water so his friend could breathe. That was all JJ could think about – all he could comprehend, or needed to – he could deal with the backlash of this decision later. Kie would no doubt give him shit for it.

"Kie! Can you check your psycho friend, please?!" Sarah pleaded. That made JJ let go, throwing Topper into the sand. Then JJ turned and raised the gun in the air.

"Okay, everyone, listen up!" he screamed, firing twice into the darkness of the night. The flash of the gun was brighter than he'd expected. It was loud, too, making the already low buzz in his ears turn up their volume. He could barely hear himself think, but he didn't care.

This shit always made him fall over the edge into the dangerous zone where he was a risk to everyone around him, let alone himself. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't help it. it was a gut reaction at this point. Snap. He hated how the Kooks treated them all. He hated that they thought they were better than him just because they came from something – from money.

"Get the hell off our side of the island!" JJ yelled, satisfied in himself when the kids from the bonfire started screaming and running away. John B was gasping for breath on the sand and that was all he cared about.

Kie and Pope were pushing him, calling him an idiot, and stupid.

"I'm saving his life, okay?!" JJ turned to them. He hated that he had to justify himself to them. If it weren't for him, John B might've been dead. Who knows if Topper would have stopped. He was just as insane as JJ and he didn't hear anyone chastising _Topper_ for putting someone's life in danger.

§

It wasn't until the next afternoon that JJ could face his friends again, at John B's place like always. John B was freaking out about the boat they'd found because Sheriff Peterkin had paid him a house call that morning.

"Peterkin said, if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS."

JJ rolled his eyes. "And you believed her?"

"Yes, I believe her, JJ."

JJ couldn't believe what he was hearing. "An actual cop, John B. You believed a cop." After everything he'd been through, JJ had always been wary of cops and their invasive questions.

The other boy gave him a look more serious than one JJ had ever seen him wear before. John B wasn't playing. That pissed JJ off.

"All I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple days, and she'll help me out," John B said, like it was a reasonable request. "It doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun."

Ungrateful. "You know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown your ass," JJ muttered, shaking his head as he looked down at his old fishing boots.

"Topper was gonna drown me?"

"Sure looked like it."

Pope and Kie were quiet for once, letting John B and JJ hash out what they needed to. That made JJ angrier.

"Funny," John B sniped.

"Have you looked in a mirror?"

Then John B was all up in his face. "Tell me some more. Come on."

"They always win, don't they, man?" JJ heard himself saying. "Kooks versus Pogues. They always, _always_ win! They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there, and _you know it_. I know you do.

"And I understand why you don't wanna go," he continued, gesturing to Pope. "You're the golden boy. You got way too much to risk. And you- I mean, you're already rich as fuck anyway," he said, looking at Kie." Why would you bother? But you and me, man, we got nothin' to lose! We really don't, all right?"

John B looked livid, his eyes hard as he stared across at JJ.

"And I know it didn't use to be that way for you."

John B shut down at that, pushing past JJ and knocking his shoulder. "I don't want to talk about this. I don't want to talk about it," he muttered.

When John B looked close to storming off, JJ turned around quickly. "John B, listen to me. I have a plan," he said. To his friend's credit, he did actually turn to hear JJ out. Too bad that what JJ had to say was _not_ going to fly with John B. "You got the key to Cameron's big boat, right?"

"No," John B said, immediately shutting down the idea he knew was in JJ's head. His friend knew him too well. JJ ignored him, telling him the plan anyway.

"There's scuba gear. We borrow that, and then we go down to the wreck this afternoon, and that is what's gonna save you, man." Then JJ added on the clincher, the one thing he knew he could say to change John B's mind. "You don't see rich kids going into foster care, _do you?_ "

It seemed to do the trick, because before they knew it, the next time the Pogues met up, they were on the _Pogue_ with two scuba tanks.

"This is empty," Kie complained. "You took empty tanks? I... Okay, this one's a quarter full. It's enough for one of us."

"Love it when a plan comes together," Pope muttered.

"Does anybody know how to dive?" Kie sighed. After a round of silence, Pope spoke up.

"I... read about it."

"Great, Pope read about it, so someone's gonna die," Kie muttered.

JJ figured he'd add his two cents. "Look, you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?"

"If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends," Pope said, giving JJ a pointed look. JJ just had to smirk.

"Bends like, bend over and..." he grinned, bending over and sticking his ass out seductively, resisting the urge to bite his lip and send it over the top.

"The bends kill you," Pope rolled his eyes, not giving JJ an inch to play around. _Buzzkill_ , JJ thought.

It was eventually decided that John B would dive down. JJ gave him the key to open the cargo hold, he had knowledge and experience after all the weight his Dad used to move back in the day.

"Keep an eye on this," Pope said to John B, holding up the handheld device that told you how much air you had left. "You need to make sure you have enough air to decompress."

"Okay, how much do I need?"

"Unclear." Pope grimaced. "Breathe as little as possible."

"Zen. Think Zen, you know?" JJ grinned. John B rolled his eyes at that. Kie was pissed that he was risking this and going down there, but honestly if John B hadn't have volunteered, JJ would have. He wanted to know what the hell was so valuable on that boat that had so many people out looking for it.

Of course, with their luck, while John B was down exploring, they just _had_ to get a visit from JJ's _favorite_ deputy. Shoupe. It was like that guy couldn't leave him alone... He'd busted JJ for smoking weed one too many times.

They had a love hate relationship. In that, JJ loved to wind the man up, and Shoupe tolerated – read: _hated_ – him for it.

Shoupe had someone else with him, too. Normally, JJ wouldn't have taken notice, but he recognized the woman. Deputy Daykin – Katie's mom. After the bonfire last night, the thought of Katie Daykin had burrowed and built a little nest in the back corner of JJ's mind. The girl was curious, and JJ was curious about her.

Normally he wouldn't have, but JJ couldn't help his mind wandering as he looked at Katie's mom. They didn't share many similarities. For one, Deputy Daykin had grey eyes and straight brown hair tucked into a low bun. Katie couldn't have been more different. JJ felt himself want to smile a little however when he realized the woman had a few freckles spattered across her nose like Katie did.

Before she was a cop, Deputy Daykin had been friends with JJ's Mom. Close enough that after his Mom was gone, Deputy Daykin would sometimes babysit him. Of course, JJ's Dad didn't want her minding him after she joined the island's Sheriff department. He didn't need her snooping around his business apparently. She was a nice enough woman. JJ hadn't thought about her in years, if he'd had a therapist, they'd probably chalk it up to his unwillingness to discuss any topic that surrounded his mother.

Still, JJ knew that Deputy Daykin made a mean apple pie. He shook away the memory, focusing back on his friends. Daykin didn't even meet his eye as Shoupe inspected their boat.

Kie was freaking out about the cops being there. They were unsure how much air John B had left. They didn't need him surfacing while Shoupe and Daykin were _right there_.

"Just act frickin' normal," Kie muttered, mostly to herself, JJ thought.

Shoupe took his time looking over the boat, chastising them for being out in the marsh while it was supposed to be closed. Finally, after what seemed like a year of time had passed, Shoupe gave them a warning to exit the marsh soon, and then he and Daykin were sailing back away from them.

John B surfaced only seconds later, gasping for air. Kie ran to the side of the boat, her relief evident on her face. Three days ago, JJ would have felt a small twinge of jealousy over that look on her face – seeing as it was for John B – but now... Well, JJ had _other things_ on his mind.

"Did you find anything?" Pope demanded.

"Did I find anything?" John B rolled his eyes, then shoved a black canvas bag up onto the _Pogue_ and climbed up only moments after. JJ grinned, clapping his hands and letting out a few whoops of celebration.

"Yeah, there we go! That's my boy!" he celebrated.

"Hey, guys? Guys, bogey, two o'clock," Pope interrupted JJ's celebration. None of them recognized the other boat in the distance, but it didn't look like it was slowing up. "What are they doing here? The marsh is closed."

"Let's not stick around and find out," JJ grimaced. He raced forward to the start lifting the bowline from the water. "Guys, don't wait for me. Go." He tried to keep the panic from his voice, and hoped the others thought he was just straining from lifting the anchor.

Then he joined the others in the middle of the boat. The guys started chasing them. JJ swore when they started shooting. John B steered them into the marsh to lose their chasers, but it wasn't really working. JJ praised Kie's quick thinking when she dodged bullets to throw an old fishing net into the other boat's path, clogging up their engine and rudders, and making their boat stall out.

Her quick thinking gave them some time to get away.

Back in the safety of The Chateau was where the Pogues were finally able to open the canvas bag and delight in their treasure.

"What do you think it is?" JJ asked, his excitement clear in his voice. He couldn't help it; this was the most interesting thing they'd done all Summer. Sunken boat looting definitely beat running from Gary the security guard, any day.

"Gotta be money, right?" John B grinned as he pulled open the bag.

"That or a couple of keys with street value to the low- to mid-mils!" JJ couldn't help fantasizing. Kie would say he watched too many crime shows. JJ didn't care – how was he supposed to stay one step ahead of the cops all the time if he didn't know all their inside tricks, huh, Kie? Try and answer that one.

"We almost died over this," Pope said as John B upended the bag. A heavy silver canister fell out onto the table. Pope sighed.

John B was quick to unscrew the lid. JJ could feel Pope and Kie deflate beside him when John B opened it only to find... "Oh, wow. Yup. That's about right. Good job, everybody. We found a compass."

JJ looked at John B, whose eyes had lit up like he'd just landed on rubies or emeralds or a life's supply of _Takis_ or something. _Now_ that _would've been the dream,_ JJ thought wistfully.

"Dude, what?" he asked John B, a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's not worth anything."

But John B looked like he'd just been given the world.

"This was my father's."

_Oh, shit._

_..._


	2. S01E02 : THE LUCKY COMPASS

**S01E02 : THE LUCKY COMPASS**

JJ grinned as he moved towards the Chateau. The place was still a mess after Aggie, but then again, the place was always a mess. The house was also unbelievably quiet, more quiet than normal. Which had to mean John B's lazy ass hadn't gotten out of bed yet.

That would work perfectly for JJ. Creeping onto the patio, he peered through the windows of the house. Nothing. The front door had a notice from the Department of Child Services tacked up there, saying John B had been summoned to make up for the house call they'd missed the day after Aggie hit.

The note gave JJ an idea. He moved around the side and grinned as he saw John B on the pull out couch, passed out like nobody's business.

Granted, he'd been up early, under the cover of almost darkness to return the tanks they'd nicked from the Cameron boat, so JJ could understand why he was now sleeping in.

JJ smirked, taking a step back from the window before pounding on the side of the house. He could have sworn he felt it shake.

"DCS! I know you're in there!" he yelled. Then with a grin, he jumped into the view through the window, effectively scaring the shit out of his best friend. JJ reared his head back with a laugh as John B wiped sleep from his eyes in shock, having almost fallen from the couch.

"Gotcha, slick," JJ couldn't help but laugh as he pointed at his friend through the window. That shit was only too easy. "You should have seen your face. Your face was like..." JJ pulled a face to emphasise his point. John B just flipped him the bird.

With a laugh, JJ walked back to the front door, letting himself in as John B groaned, pulling himself out of bed. After a breakfast of warm beer for JJ – the power was still out at The Cut – and stale air for John B, the two headed for the beat up old van.

John B had called JJ around to go visit someone, he wasn't sure exactly who yet. In the van, they listened to some easy reggae beats in the background of their conversation. It had steered somewhat towards their discovery from the prior afternoon.

After John B had realized the compass was his father's, the rest of the Pogues hadn't known how to approach the situation, JJ especially.

John B and his Dad had been close, something JJ was only familiar with on a good day, but even then he'd never had what John B had. Their current topic of conversation however, JJ had in mind something different than lost compasses.

"I'm just saying, I don't understand why you don't at least try with Kiara," he grinned, ribbing his friend. "She clearly likes you. –She's like, _'Oh, John B'_." JJ moaned to rile him up. It worked.

"Is that what she does?" John B rolled his eyes, as if he had no idea what JJ was talking about. JJ shook it off. Their friend was different these days, not knowing who to like, though she pretty much had at least the three other Pogues to choose from.

Yesterday at the Grady-White, she'd acted especially pissed, like a scorned girlfriend.

JJ's eyes shifted from the road, to his friend, to out the window, over and over, trying to determine where John B was dragging him along to. At least the front seat of the van was comfortable though, even more so with his knee resting on the door.

"She's sketching about you diving, then she kissed you," JJ pointed out.

"She kissed me on the cheek. It's not like we were makin' out," John B rolled his eyes. JJ waved off his friend.

"Low-hanging fruit, bro. Don't pretend you don't notice. I see it in your eyes." JJ smirked at his friend. The guy wasn't exactly subtle when it came to girls – especially Kie. "You're like, _'I kinda like that,'_ and you start blushing and shit." JJ waved his arms for emphasis.

"I blush?"

JJ laughed out loud, giving his friend the epitome of an 'are you serious' look. "Yeah."

"Really?" John B was skeptical, but JJ wasn't letting this go.

"Yeah." JJ swiped the compass from their find yesterday from the dashboard, fiddling with it.

"Hey, don't–" John B moved to snatch the compass from his friend's hand. JJ dodged it easily, seeing as John B still had to have a hand on the wheel.

"I was just looking at it," he complained. "I gotta admit, your father's compass in Scooter's boat, that's freaky."

John B sighed. "Yeah. That's why we're going to talk to Ms. Lana..., figure this whole thing out."

JJ frowned as it was finally uncovered where they were headed. He fiddled uncomfortably with the compass. The chain wound around his fingers over and over as he fidgeted.

"I'm sure she would just love to talk to us," he rolled his eyes. This was an incredibly stupid idea. "It's not like her husband just _drowned_ or anything..."

When they pulled up at Scooter's house, JJ whistled. The sign on the post at what might have once been a gate, read 'Welcome, Tree Spirit, to your Reiki Headquarters'. JJ couldn't help the roll of his eyes. John B effectively ignored him and JJ was forced to follow as his friend ditched the car and made his way towards the house.

JJ smirked as they approached the multicoloured house, so obviously hand painted. The designs were kind of whacky – exactly what you'd expect from the hippiest couple on the island.

"You know what this house looks like?" JJ eyed the psychedelic colors that swirled on the house. John B gave him a questioning look. "Whoever lives here smokes _too much_ weed."

JJ grinned to himself. Normally, he wouldn't have thought of weed as something you could have too much of, but this house was a little excessive.

As the boys got closer though, JJ's skin began to prickle as the faint -normal- calls of seabirds were instead interrupted by the smashing of glass, and yelling.

All too familiar and already setting his teeth on edge, JJ gave his friend a wary look. Their steps slowed automatically. John B shook his head once at JJ, who pursed his lips, knowing that a few screams and crashes were too enticing to John B.

JJ knew what they really meant. He knew the consequence of being somewhere he shouldn't, and where that normally would have excited him, given him a little adrenaline rush, this time it hit all too close to home. And all JJ wanted to do was bolt.

"Bullshit!" A man called out as something crashed against a wall. The hair on the back of JJ's neck raised. His hands clenched on reflex.

"Maybe we should come back–," he ventured, gesturing warily at the rainbow house, his eyebrows creased.

"No, no, shut up," John B pressed.

"–It's a little too soon..."

"Shut up, JJ."

JJ could feel his heart start to race when the man inside the house began yelling again. "Tell me where it is, or I'll fuck you up–"

The sounds of a woman gasping – sobbing – rang out towards the two boys. 

"–I'll sink you in the fucking–" Something crashed, cutting him off and on reflex, JJ ducked his head a little, trying to dodge the blow that rained down on the woman – Lana, most likely – as she screamed.

"You're hurting me!"

 _I should not be here,_ JJ thought. _Out – I need out. We need to go, we should not be here._

"I–"

"Shut up." John B cut off his friend, making JJ frown. He felt tight all over. "Come on," John B urged with a whisper. The two of them ducked closer to the house, their backs against a wall. JJ could feel the house shake with each bang and crash.

He gritted his teeth. Now was not the time to be falling apart. The shouts of the man were more indistinct than before. JJ couldn't make out any of the words he was saying, but that might have been due more to the ringing in his ears.

"Come on," John B whispered again, jumping over a bush to get closer to the house.

"Where the fuck is it, you bitch?" the man demanded.

"I don't know!"

JJ could feel Lana's sobs like they were his own. He winced, trying to ignore it, trying to ignore the tremble in his bottom lip.

"Is it here in this house?" The man threw something glass at the wall that crashed. Lana sobbed in reply. "Is it somewhere else?"

"Please! I– I didn't–" Lana whimpered.

"You–"

"Shut up," John B told him again. JJ glared at the ground.

"Still think we should stay?" JJ winced. Something thumped against the wall. JJ shuddered at the weight of it.

"The compass wasn't in the boat! Where is it, Lana?"

"I don't know!"

More glass smashed. In a house like this, normally JJ might have made a crack about how the guy was probably smashing up all her bongs. Right now, JJ wasn't in a state to comment on a thing like that. He tried to steady his breathing as they waited out whatever was happening inside.

"Don't listen," JJ muttered, mostly to himself. Something shuddered against the wall again and both boys looked up, dust falling in their eyes and their hair.

"Is that paint?" JJ whispered desperately.

"Yes, it's paint." John B's teeth were gritted as he said the words. JJ tried to shake it off as John B peered through the smashed open window above their heads.

"Let's get the hell outta here, man," a man said, making JJ realise there were two guys in there with Lana. That was even worse. John B crept aside JJ to peer around the corner of the house.

"We should just go," JJ pleaded. "He's got smuggler..."

"Shut up."

"...written all over him."

"Shut up. Shut up." John B peered around the edge of the house, his eyes glued to something. Lana was still sobbing inside, it was all consuming in JJ's head.

When he heard an engine start, JJ moved to look over John B's shoulder. He lay eyes on two dark haired men in a fancy white boat.

"Dude, those were the guys that shot at us!" JJ whisper yelled. "That's–"

"Go back!" John B urged in a low voice before JJ could finish. JJ didn't have to be told twice. The two boys shuffled out of view, holding still until the boat was gone. Then, they rushed inside. JJ was right behind John B, still on edge as he surveyed their surroundings.

John B was neglecting to do the same as his eyes were on Ms. Lana, who cowered in the doorway to the bathroom, a gas lamp at her feet.

JJ regarded the mess of the house – the inside was even more of a hippy crap heap than the outside. Of course, Aggie hadn't helped. There was broken glass and furniture all over, and clothing ripped here and there like the two men had ransacked the place.

John B knelt beside Ms. Lana as she sobbed, looking up at the two boys in confusion of why they were there. JJ was asking himself the same question.

"Shit. Ms. Lana? Ms. Lana?" John B called out. "Hey. Hey! Hey, are you okay? It's okay." JJ regarded his friend as he tried to console the woman.

"Dude, she's tweaking–" he tried to tell him. John B ignored his friend.

"Do you need a doctor?" he asked, then turned to JJ. "Let's call the sheriff's department."

"No, no, no! No cops, please!" the woman sobbed. JJ pursed his lips.

"Mm. That's not good. Come on, dude. Let's just go." JJ knew they shouldn't have come. They should have bolted as soon as they heard the fighting.

"You shouldn't be here," Ms. Lana said, her voice thick with tears. JJ agreed with her.

"That's enough for me," he said. "Come on."

His hand was on John B's shoulder, trying to get him to leave with him. JJ was two seconds from abandoning his friend and taking the van. But Pogues don't abandon Pogues...

"Wait, wait!" John B shrugged him off. "What do you know about these guys?" he turned back to the woman, who just sobbed with puffy eyes.

"They were looking for something."

JJ shuffled on his feet, increasingly uncomfortable the longer they stayed there.

"Does it have anything to do with this?" John B suddenly asked, pulling the compass they found on the Grady-White – Big John's compass – and showing it to Ms. Lana with a flat palm. "Do you know anything about this? This is my father's, and Scooter had it. Why?"

The woman looked like she was two seconds away from a complete meltdown, her eyes wide as she stared at the compass. And had JJ mentioned that he wanted out of there? _Right now?!_

"Scooter didn't have it, okay?" Ms. Lana begged. "Don't tell anyone you have it."

The woman was getting louder by the second. JJ pulled at his friend's shoulder. "Come on," he pleaded.

"Why?!" John B pleaded the woman. She was in hysterics.

"They can't know! You've gotta get out of here!"

"What do you know about the compass?" John B demanded.

"Go! Get out!"

JJ had had enough. He reefed his friend to his feet and began pulling him to the door. JJ was in total flight mode and he didn't care. His gut was telling him to get the hell out of that house and he didn't care how many answers John B wanted, _he_ was going to listen to his gut.

"We gotta go. Let's go!"

JJ managed to pull his friend from the house. They ran on shaky legs to the van, throwing themselves inside. John B was in no mood to chat, if the unsatisfied glare in his eyebrows was anything to go off.

JJ wasn't in a mood to talk either. He was pretty sure his hands were shaking.

As John B pulled them back out onto the road, JJ barely had time to register as they drove past Ms. Lana's neighbors.

JJ's eyes widened as he saw Katie Daykin taking a black garbage bag out to the trashbin. JJ had no idea that she was Ms. Lana's neighbor.

Her eyes locked onto his for a brief moment through the open window of the van. She offered him a small wave and a smile but JJ didn't have the time or the emotional capacity to even register that it had happened until they'd made it back to the Chateau.

It was only then that JJ realized he must have seemed like such an ass to her, not reciprocating her wave.

He was more in shock that she lived so close to Ms. Lana. The coincidence was undeniable.

Had she heard the screaming and the shouting and the crashing and smashing? If she had, wouldn't she now question why she'd seen JJ fleeing the location just moments after? The whole experience at Lana's had JJ questioning whether all of this sunken boat searching was a good idea anymore.

These guys meant business. They'd shot at the Pogues only yesterday, and now they were beating up Ms. Lana and trashing her house. JJ wished he'd had his gun there with him...

Back at the house, John B and JJ barely said a word to eachother as they waited for Pope and Kie to come around like they always did. With the towers down, it was not like they could call each other, even though this was pretty urgent.

When they arrived, they'd seen the freaked out look in JJ's eyes and immediately demanded to know what had happened. By that time, of course, JJ had allowed his brain to embellish the morning's events.

"And we were right outside like this," he said, positioning himself against the wall of the patio. "And all we hear is just, _'Bam! Bam! Bam!'_ Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. All right? And I'm just looking at him, like– Wait, first off, look at this shit. Look at it."

JJ moved closer to his friends, bending over so that they could see the top of his head, then shaking his hands through it to make it rain.

"That's dandruff, disgusting," Kie complained as JJ shuffled his head.

"Okay, thank you," Pope told him, pushing JJ away from him where he was littering their feet with paint chips.

"Look at all that. All right?" JJ said pointedly. "That's _paint_. At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death."

Pope rolled his eyes. "Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?" Pope asked.

"Yeah, anything. Anything," Kie agreed. JJ's lips parted.

"Anything we can bring to a police report?" Pope continued.

JJ shrugged. "Burly."

"Burly?" Pope rose his brow.

"Yeah," JJ said. That was a perfectly reasonable description, right? "You know, like–"

"That's not very helpful," Kie rolled her eyes, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage," JJ tried. Surely that was a good enough description. "I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

"Yeah. Yes. No, we know," Kie rolled her eyes. JJ was barely listening, he was too struck on his train of thought.

"I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." he pulled a stack of smokes from his pocket and hit them on his palm. Then he took one out and lit it up, taking a smoke like it would calm him. He let the smoke curl out his lips in a harsh breath. "They're square groupers."

"They're square groupers?" Pope sighed, running a hand over his head. "Like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"

JJ nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, man." He was glad _someone_ finally got this. This shit was no joke.

"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie," Kie rolled her eyes.

"What does this square grouper look like? Specifically?–" Pope asked. That pissed JJ off; he rolled his eyes.

"You weren't there!" he sighed, taking another drag.

"–If we're throwin' it out there, because _apparently_ , you don't know what to look for."

"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time. I was under duress, okay?" JJ gasped in a breath. Pope sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"But I can tell you..." JJ continued, trying to catch his breath. This was getting him way too worked up, and that smoke probably hadn't helped.. "I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious _hombres_ , man."

John B flicked the compass open and closed, the tinkling sound making JJ's ears prick. The boy paced back and forth as JJ kept talking. Filling the silence was the only way he knew how to keep the memories from slicing his brain. He hadn't liked hearing Ms. Lana scream.

"It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much," JJ said, his voice lower – defeated.

"Why do they want the compass?" Kie tried. Pope nodded in agreement.

"It's a piece of shit," he said. John B paced behind them both. "You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to... No offense. I know it's in your family–"

John B suddenly stopped, the compass still in his hands as his eyes widened like he'd just had an epiphany. JJ regarded him carefully. He wasn't letting his friend drag him into any more stupid things like he had this morning.

"The office." John B's voice was low. JJ's brow furrowed, he exhaled his smoke again, letting it drift out his nose like a dragon – that usually calmed him down.

"What?" Pope asked, speaking all of their minds.

"My dad," John B said firmly. "My dad's office. He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his _Royal Merchant_ research." JJ and the others followed John B through the house as the boy pulled a set of keys from his back pocket. "We used to laugh at him like he was gonna find it. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda... I just left it as he kept it."

"Yeah, for when he gets back," Kie nodded, giving the other two boys a pointed look. The Royal Merchant was this ship that sunk at sea over a century ago with millions of dollars worth of gold on board. Treasure hunters had been gunning to find it for years – including Big John, one of the most passionate about the sunken shipwreck.

"Yeah." John B opened the office door. It creaked as it swung. _Scooby Doo vibes_ , JJ thought as they all walked in.

"I've slept over here like 600 times, and I've never seen this door opened," Pope wondered, his jaw dropped in awe. Kie mumbled in agreement. John B pulled a corkboard with somewhat of a homemade family tree pinned on it, down to the table between the four of them.

"Here, look. This is the original owner, right here," he said, pointing.

"Okay. Robert Q. Routledge, 1880 to 1920," Kie mused, eyeing the photo that had yellowed with age. "There's the lucky compass, right there." JJ moved around the table to stand closer to the rest of the group, next to the window.

"Actually, um... he was shot after he bought it," John B admitted. A rooster crowed helpfully behind the house, as if to add to the awkward air.

"Then the compass was shipped back to Henry," John B continued. "He was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass. After he died, the compass was given to Stephen. Stephen had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam–"

JJ rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, he died in action, right?"

John B worried his lip between his teeth with a shrug. "Sort of. –Uh, a-actually, he was killed by a banana truck. In– in country... Anyways, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad–"

"Hm. Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here..." JJ said warily.

"–Yeah... Er, you have a death compass," Pope agreed.

"I do not." John B rolled his eyes at his friends.

"You have a death compass. Get rid of it," JJ supplied helpfully. He didn't need some whacky _Ouija Board_ esque compass giving them any more grief than it already had. "It's cursed, and it's made its way back to you."

"Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here," John B rolled his eyes, then began unscrewing the back of the compass. "Soldiers used to hide secret notes..."

JJ's eyes widened when John B held the two pieces up to the light for them all to gaze upon.

"What's that?" Kie demanded. The scratchings on the inside were definitely deliberate.

JJ was now getting _Death Note_ vibes. What if the person's name scrawled in the back was the next to die?

John B frowned, his finger tracing the carving. "That wasn't there before... This is my dad's handwriting."

"How can you know that?" Pope rolled his eyes.

"Because he does these weird R's with the– See it?"

JJ frowned but held out his hand. "Can I see it? _'Red– Rout–'_... No, I think that's an A."

"It says Redfield," Kie said.

"Right."

"Okay, well, what's Redfield?" she asked, looking at John B.

"Besides the most common name in the county?" Pope sighed.

"Oh, maybe– maybe it's a clue," John B said, hope evident in his voice. JJ didn't want to let that hope grow. Big John had been missing at sea way too long to have any chance at coming back. JJ knew that, Kie knew that, Pope knew that... John B was in denial. Saying it's only denial if he ends up being wrong about his dad being alive.

JJ knew how it would end, but he knew he needed to support his friend, which was why none of the rest of the Pogues had poached the conversation with John B.

"Right? Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding," John B continued.

"Okay..." JJ tried.

"A clue? Come on, that's–" Pope rolled his eyes. Kie cut him off with the clearing of her throat, her eyes signalling Pope to John B pointedly. Pope gulped as he realized how that might have sounded to his friend.

The rooster crowed again, louder it seemed.

"But if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?" Pope tried.

"Yes. Perfect. Anagram. You need paper. Here you go," John B said.

"How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" Pope demanded.

"JJ loves the rooster," John B shrugged. JJ grinned to himself. He did love that damn rooster. He was an annoying bastard, just like JJ, which he took pride in. It takes a specific skill set to be able to perfect the art of annoyance.

" _I_ love the rooster," Kie agreed.

"Let me think," Pope said.

Kie nodded. "Seriously, think."

"Dedfiel," Pope tried. "Colors– That's stupid."

"What about Ritalin?" JJ tried.

"Um..." Kie wondered.

"Dreidel? Fiddler?" JJ continued.

"Let's stick with what we're...." Pope trailed off.

"Defile. Does that mean anything to you?"

"Guys," John B warned.

"You're missing a letter," Kie rolled her eyes at JJ, still focused on the paper. JJ resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at his friend. He was just trying to be helpful.

"Guys!" John B demanded, more forceful. "Somebody's here." _Shit_. _Square groupers,_ JJ thought immediately _._ The other three rushed to the window to stare out at the incoming danger John B had spotted. Good thing he'd had the sense to be lookout. They were discussing sensitive information right now, even if it felt more like a failed _ancestry-dot-com_ search.

"Guys, guys, is that them?" Kie worried.

"No..." JJ worried, knowing his word was more of a _'No... why does this always happen to us?'_ , and by always, he meant the events since Aggie, and by us, he meant himself.

"Is that them?" Kie asked again as they saw two men approaching the house.

"This is suboptimal," Pope worried, his voice rising.

"John B, I told you–" JJ started. "Why does it always–" He was cut off as John B slammed him into a wall, putting a finger to his lips to shut him up.

"JJ! Hey, look at me. Where's the gun?" his friend demanded.

JJ's eyes widened in panic. Shit – where _was_ the gun? Why was he always so scatterbrained? "Gun? I, uh, I can't–"

" _Now_ you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kie whimpered.

"It was in my backpack, and then I–" JJ remembered.

"Backpack–" John B repeated. "On the porch."

"It's on the porch." JJ nodded, moving to open the office door and go search the house. "It's–"

"Go, go!" John B urged him. JJ almost made it to the porch when one of the men yelled, startling JJ and making him stumble as he tried to turn around and scuttle back to the safety of the locked office.

"John Routledge!" One of the men called out. JJ managed to get back inside, locking the door after him.

"Guys..." Kie whimpered again.

"Come on out now! Fuck– Where's the compass?"

"Where's the gun?" John B whispered to JJ. JJ ran a hand over his forehead.

"They're on the front porch, guys," he shook his head slightly, as if it were an explanation.

"Get out here!" The man yelled again. "Routledge! Where you at, boy?"

"We gotta leave!" Kie said, her voice strained in her whisper. "Guys, window. Window!"

They heard glass shatter outside the door. Pope and JJ headed for the window, trying to pry the damn thing open. It shouldn't have been so hard.

"Hurry," Kie demanded.

"Sack this place!" The second man yelled, grunting slightly as he picked something up and threw it at a wall.

"What– what's happening? Why is it taking so long?" Kie demanded, her voice pitchy with worry.

"It's painted shut, okay?" JJ snapped at her. She winced at his outburst but he could apologize later. They were all a little highstrung right now. Pope left him at the window to try and find something to pry it open with.

"Routledge!"

John B had his hands behind his neck as he leant back against the office door, eyes closed, obviously panicking. JJ grunted with the effort of trying to open the window.

"Okay, guys. Guys. Here, I got it," Kie whispered as she produced a letter opener that they could hopefully use to unstick this damn window. Who in their right mind would paint a window shut? Like what kind of fucking idiot–

"Where the hell's that compass?!

"Come on, come on," JJ whispered to himself, trying to slice away at layers of paint.

Kie gave him an exasperated look that he didn't have time for.

"I'm going as fast as I can," he glared at her. Pope abandoned the window to stand beside John B at the door, both of their eyes wide as they motioned for their friends to shut up as they barricaded the door with their bodies.

"Shh..."

"Be quiet."

"You better not be in there!" The second man yelled as the office door rattled, protesting against the weight he'd just thrown against it. A gunshot to the lock made it bust open. By the time the square groupers busted through the door though, the Pogues were elsewhere, the window having given way to let them out.

Instead, they were crouched in chicken shit, cowering in the coop like, well... _chickens._ And the rooster was still fucking crowing.

Then the guys were exiting the house, making their way to their car, dissatisfied that they hadn't found John B or the compass. They had something else in their hands, though. Blueprints, JJ realized – the ones of the Royal Merchant that had been stacked on the tables and tacked to the walls of Big John's office.

Must have been more valuable and useful than JJ had originally thought. And now they'd be gone – _Shit_ , _there goes millions in solid gold_. The amount of weed JJ could have bought with that... or _Takis_...

The rooster was still going for it, making too much noise, and JJ's eyes widened as he peered through one of the coop windows. The rooster had caught the attention of one of the square groupers, who was eyeing the coop.

Shit, if he found them there, they were screwed.

"Do something, Pope. Shut him up," JJ urged, barely breaking a whisper.

"What do you want me to do?" Pope demanded, his whisper stricken.

"Pet it, or talk to it. I don't know," Kie hissed, tears in her eyes.

"You do something!" Was his reply with wide eyes. JJ grimaced and grabbed a hold of the rooster before it could run off. It struggled in his hands and he fucking hated to do it, but it was either them or the rooster.

With tears in his eyes, his hands squeezed around the animal's neck, slamming it into the ground until it shut up – limp and lifeless before him. Kie was sobbing behind him. He was broken on the inside. An animal didn't deserve to die that way, and especially not because of what was going on.

"Ratter! What the hell are you doin'? Let's go," the first man called to the other. The second abandoned his steady creep towards the coop and instead they both got into their truck and drove off.

Kie sobbed.

This is not how JJ saw his day going when he woke up this morning...

§

The Pogues were quick to get in the van and abandon the Chateau. Driving down winding roads edged with greenery warped significantly by Aggie seemed the appropriate response to having been chased out of a house for the second time that day, JJ thought.

"I mean, it's obvious, right?" John B said as he drove. "A family heirloom. What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was gonna get back to me, right?"

Kie was in the passenger seat, her back against the window so that she could watch John B carefully. JJ was seated right behind John B, playing with one of the woven bracelets at his wrist, tightening and untightening it. Pope was next to him, the compass dangling in front of his face as he held it up.

"Yeah. It's possible," Kie nodded.

"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels," Pope tried.

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels," JJ grinned. "Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it."

John B rolled his eyes. "I'm not concocting, okay? My dad's trying to give me a message."

"If it helps you believe, John B–" Kie tried.

"Look, I- I don't need a therapy session, okay?" John B sighed. "Look, I'm not trippin' out."

"It's okay to trip, bro, but–" JJ mumbled.

"Look, my– my dad is missing, okay? ... _Missing_. You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning wondering..." he trailed off.

"Yeah... but– It's been almost a year," Kie sighed, her voice careful, trying not to upset her friend. John B gave her a long look, like he was disappointed in her lack of support. JJ wanted so badly to lighten the mood, but with a conversation as heavy as this, it wasn't so easy.

"Hey, he could have been kidnapped. That's definitely a possibility," he supplied.

"Yeah, could be in a Soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere," Pope played along.

"Absolutely. Uh... or Atlantis," he grinned.

"JJ," Kie rolled her eyes disapprovingly. "Look, what do you think the message is?" she asked John B. The boy sighed next to her.

"Redfield Lighthouse. That's my dad's favorite place." He was confident about his answer. And when they pulled up at the lighthouse and all got out, JJ was starting to see how it _maybe_ might make sense, but he still thought it was a long shot that Big John was trying to send his son a message through a compass that they'd stolen from a random Grady-White.

"Right, here's what's gonna happen," John B said, looking from the lighthouse towards JJ, who had been shielding his eyes from the sun. "You're gonna post up and look out for bogeys, okay?"

JJ nodded before stopping up short.

"Wait... Why me?" JJ frowned. He didn't like that plan one bit. If John B was gonna drag him into this mess, he wanted to at least be in the thick of it, not on sentinel duty. How boring.

"Because you're not coming," Pope shrugged flatly. JJ resisted the urge to gasp like a scorned teenage girl in some terrible _Netflix_ movie.

"Why?" JJ repeated. This was unfair.

"Because, there are independent and dependent variables," Pope went on, using his fingers to explain as if JJ were a child who didn't understand complex things. He was hurt by that insinuation. "You're independent. We don't know what you'll do."

"Shut up! Shut up!" JJ snapped. "Just shut up, you don't know–"

"Hey, listen! Just listen to me for a second," John B got in the middle of them. "Pope, you stand look out with JJ. Okay? If we get split up, we meet back at JJ's house."

"Great," Kie agreed, sealing the plan in motion. JJ smirked at Pope. _Haha, now we both have to sit out of play time –wait... aww shit._ As John B and Kie jumped the fence and walked to the lighthouse, JJ pulled a small ball from his back pocket and started to play hacky-sack with himself.

He got to thirty while Pope talked out loud.

"I'm gonna work on my merit scholarship essay, and I'm trying to keep felonies to a minimum," Pope sighed, fixing his cap backwards as he basically talked to himself. He may as well have; JJ wasn't listening anyway.

"Alright, will you just shut up already," JJ rolled his eyes.

§

Kie eventually came down from the lighthouse alone, telling JJ and Pope that the lighthouse manager called the cops on them and Shoupe arrested John B.

JJ rolled his eyes.

"God, that guy just _loves_ to put himself where he's not wanted," he chuckled.

"Who?" Pope's eyebrows crinkled.

JJ grinned. "Shoupe. He's got nothin' better to do than arrest Pogues, apparently. Acts like he didn't used to be one of us..." JJ shook his head with a grin and Kie rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, we've gotta get back to town. Maybe I can get my dad to bail John B out," Kie shrugged. Pope nodded and got into the driver's seat of the van, taking them back to the heart of town.

"Wait," JJ said as they were about to move away from their spot. "What about the compass?"

Kie shook her head. "Don't worry about it, I got it." She held it up for the boys to see and JJ felt himself relax. That would have been shit if they'd got the cops onto their asses about any of this.

"So, what did you guys find out?" Pope asked. "Anything useful?"

Kie shrugged. "Yeah, just that experts think the Royal Merchant went down on the South end. But he thinks it actually went down on the North end of the Eye, which is exactly where Big John thought it went down. And that the hurricane might have pushed the ship closer to shore, which is good for us, I guess. Then he did some calculations that matched up with something John B remembered that his Dad used to say, and that the ship is down about 1,000 feet around the continental shelf."

JJ recalled the map from the motel. John B had said something about the continental shelf then as well, and while JJ had run with it and thought maybe there was a new big surf swell out there, it wasn't totally out there to think Scooter had been after the Merchant and got his hands on Big John's coordinates. Especially if he had something to do with Big John's compass...

"Then he called the cops on us because John B showed him the compass and asked about Redfield. The guy told the cops we were on drugs," she rolled her eyes.

JJ grinned. "Well, if I'd been up there with you guys, he would've been a third correct."

Pope turned slightly in his seat to see JJ lighting up a joint, to which he laughed at. JJ grinned. This was the part of the day he loved.

When they got back to town, they all went their separate ways.

JJ headed towards one of the markets. He'd found a spare fiver in his pocket and was hungry. Anything would be better than the diet of warm beer he'd kept up since Aggie. His stomach was _this_ close to letting everyone else around him know just how starved he was.

Picking himself out a bright red apple and a bag of _Takis_ , he headed to the counter. He averted his eyes when he realized who he'd come to stand behind in line. If she hadn't have turned to pick up a pack of gum from the register, he probably wouldn't have seen her.

Shit.

She looked even better in the daylight than she had at the kegger.

"Uhh... Hi?" he offered. He thought he'd better make up for having seemingly ignored her as he and John B had practically sped past her that morning in their haste to flee Ms. Lana's.

"Hi," she smiled, seemingly holding no animosity for it. She looked down at the food in his hands and her lips parted slightly.

"Uhh, did you want to go first?" she offered, pointing towards the register.

JJ shook his head easily. "Oh no, it's fine. You go ahead."

Katie's eyebrows furrowed slightly but she kept up her smile. "Are you sure? I mean, you've only got the two things, and I've got, well..." she gestured to her full shopping cart and JJ grinned.

"No, really. You go. Ladies first and all."

For anyone else, he might've taken the offer, but he didn't mind waiting for her. Never mind how creepy it made him, but waiting for her meant being able to just watch and be in her presence. He didn't understand it, but after having thought about her more consistently over the last few days than he'd ever given any attention to another girl – ever – he didn't mind standing there.

She eventually shrugged and got herself sorted, helping things be scanned and put into brown bags and then back in the shopping cart. They didn't exchange any more words, but JJ liked watching the way her lips moved as she spoke to the cashier.

He liked watching her interactions with people. He liked the small smile on her lips and the flush in her cheeks when she realized he was watching her and waiting patiently.

By the time she was done, JJ's head felt lighter than it ever had when he smoked weed. She gave him a megawatt smile as she pulled her cart out of his way and began moving to walk off.

"Sorry that took so long," she said. JJ shook his head.

"You're fine." _In more ways than one_. God, he was cringey. And stalkerish. He needed to stop staring... and _talking_.

"Okay..." she trailed off lightly. "Well, I'll uhhh... I'll see you around the island then, I guess." JJ grinned at her, to which she blushed. "Uhm... let me know if there's another party, yeah?"

JJ grinned, nodding once as he handed his things to the cashier. "Absolutely."

"Great, because I'd love to... ahh, get to catch up again like we did before. It was nice. I don't have many friends around the island anymore."

JJ nodded, but before she could reply, her father called her name from the door. Her father regarded JJ with a nod and then Katie was off, giving JJ an apologetic look. Mr Daykin was the English and History teacher at JJ's highschool. That was one of the other reasons it was odd that Katie hadn't been around in almost a year. It wasn't like her family had moved elsewhere.

"That'll be $4.45."

JJ turned to the cashier, giving them a dumb look for a moment before fumbling in his pants to pull out his money. Then he was heading off. He didn't know where he'd go yet. Maybe back to the Chateau?

There'd be nothing to do while John B was in jail, though. He couldn't go to Pope's, Heyward would just put him to work and right now, as helpful as JJ usually found himself when it came to Heyward, after the mess of the day he didn't feel like it.

He could go home, but that wasn't an attractive choice either.

JJ settled on wandering for a while. He had a few friends outside of the Pogues who hung out at the marina. He could maybe head there for a while... He chewed easily on his apple as he walked, thinking about a curious girl with a curious eyes that asked questions her lips didn't.

§

By the afternoon, JJ had made it round to Heyward's place, and he and Pope had snuck around the back to their spot. As they leaned against the back wall of _Heyward's Seafood_ , JJ smoked and Pope fixed one of the grills that Heyward planned to use at Midsummers in a few week's time.

The sun was beginning to set, bathing everything in that healthy orange glow that was just so familiar.

The beeping of the Pogue van – John B in the driver's seat – broke the two of them from their easy boredom. JJ grinned, exhaling his smoke. His cigarette hung from his lip as he pushed off the wall with a grin.

"Let's ride," JJ laughed, moving towards the van and settling himself in the front seat. Even though the day had been long and exciting and exhausting, hanging with the Pogues was an effortless chore that JJ would never tire of.

He'd never tire of John B's endless shenanigans either, unlike Pope, who rolled his eyes at the sight of the van but still got up and made his way over with an exasperated grin.

"This better be good."

JJ rolled his eyes at Pope. His friend liked to talk a big game about being above this kind of shit, but JJ knew better. JJ knew his friend liked to be in and amongst it as much as anyone.

"How was the slammer? Any hot guards to pass the time?" JJ joked.

"Gross. They're all so old," Pope shuddered, to which JJ just laughed.

John B shook his head with a grin at his friend.

"Nah. Ward Cameron fired me instead."

"What?" Pope demanded. John B nodded.

"For _theft_. Sarah caught me putting the empty tanks back yesterday morning and must have told him. I ripped into her for it."

JJ rolled his eyes. "Fuckin' Kooks, man. They think they know shit."

Pope nodded.

"Got chased by those guys again, too, right after I got out. Ran me right into an electric fence and I got my ass fried," John B admitted. JJ burst out laughing.

"Serious?"

"Dead ass, bro," John B shook his head. JJ whistled. "Nah, that's not all. Sheriff Peterkin was the one who stopped them comin' right after me. Then she demanded I hand over the compass, saying I was lucky I had it on me, because it centered the voltage."

Pope swore. "So, you gave up the compass?"

John B nodded. "Yeah. But it's alright, because I figured something else out. We'll get Kie first and then I'll fill you guys in on my epiphany."

JJ let out a whoop of excitement. "Epiphany? Bro, you been getting into my stash? I left it at your house, so I wouldn't be surprised if you did..."

John B grinned. "No, though I do know that you hid it in the box of Frosted Flakes box in my kitchen, underneath the bag of expired cereal itself."

JJ's jaw dropped. "How'd you know? I thought it was such a careful hiding spot?"

John B rolled his eyes. "Stale cereal won't stop me, bro. I'm broke as shit."

JJ laughed.

"Ain't we all," Pope chimed in. The three of them laughed as they headed out towards Kie's family restaurant – The Wreck. Pope headed inside to get her when they pulled up. He came back out only a minute later with a frown on his face.

"She says she's not comin'."

"Why not?" JJ pulled a face. Then, with a knowing look, he turned to his friend. He knew that something would happen with John B and Kie going up to the lighthouse alone. How could it not? Not with all the attentive shit she'd been pulling since they'd found the Grady-White. "What'd you do to her, John B?"

"Shit," John B muttered, leaning over the steering wheel. "Hang on. I'll deal with it..." JJ grinned as his friend got out of the car.

 _Whipped_ , he thought to himself with a smirk. He couldn't blame John B for it, though. If Kie had shown JJ that much interest before, he'd have been whipped, too. He was glad to have his eye on someone else now.

Eventually, Kie came around – like JJ knew she would – and they were driving somewhere in the dark. JJ thought he'd make the best of the situation, especially as he'd switched seats to lay in the comfort of the back of the van.

"You mind if I just relax on this one?" he voiced. "It's been a long day, and a lot of weird stuff's gone down. I'm just gonna lay low. Oh, did you want a hit of this?" he grinned, holding out his joint for Pope.

His friend denied him with the raise of his hand, shaking his head slightly.

"I keep the signal clear," Pope rolled his eyes. JJ just grinned.

"Dude, okay. Do you understand that your problem is that you _don't_ get creative?" he grinned. Pope was halfway to ignoring him but JJ was still going. "If you got creative, then–"

"Look," John B interrupted him, rescuing Pope, and making JJ smirk into the evening darkness. "I– I know I was wrong about the lighthouse, all right? And wrong about everything else going on. But I– I was right about one thing... Okay? My dad _is_ trying to tell me something."

The other three Pogues shared a look as John B looked pointedly ahead of them. Kie seemed the most skeptical of whatever plan John B was concocting. Pope seemed as wary as he usually did about everything.

JJ was three hits in already so he was chillin'. This shit was hitting him faster than normal, though JJ could chalk it up to today's anxiety.

When they arrived at the cemetery, JJ's curiosity grew. First, he hoped they'd come to bury the death compass and get rid of its bad juju that was sure to follow them around if they kept it. But then he remembered that John B already gave it up to Peterkin.

That's not to say that the stupid thing wouldn't make its way back to them like it had for every other Routledge...

After that, he was still curious, But John B had yet to fill them in on just what the hell they were doing here. JJ prayed that his friend wasn't moonlighting as a grave robber.

"Come on, hey," John B said as they walked. They lit the way with torches, JJ the only one smart enough to be using the head torch so that he could have both hands free. If he was going to be grave robbing, he wasn't going to be an amateur about it, like, come on.

"I'm coming," Kie complained. "This place is scary. John B, what are we doing?"

"Shut up." Was his eloquent reply – albeit whispered. "You know how when you're trying to remember a song and can't remember who sings it?"

"Yeah," Kie replied.

"So, Redfield. This whole time, I thought it was a place, right?" he said. "But it's not a place... It's a person." John B held his torch up to shine it on a huge monolithic mausoleum crypt thing. JJ could make out the name 'Redfield' engraved into the stone, though it was pretty covered up with vines.

The place was a crap heap. The stone was crumbling to shit and there were holes in the walls of the little building.

"Voi-effing-là," JJ heard himself say. John B promptly ignored him, but JJ heard Pope snicker. If JJ had endless patience for John B's shenanigan's, then Pope had endless patience for JJ's sarcastic commentary.

"See, my great-great-grandmother Olivia Redfield," John B said. "That was her maiden name." JJ barely paid attention to John B as he talked about how he'd come across his realization as he'd been burning some papers and the family tree from his Dad's office.

"Look, help me with the door, alright. Come on," John B lamented. _Okay, so I was joking before but I guess we_ are _grave robbing then...??_ JJ shrugged to himself. All three boys nodded and moved forward, grunting and on the count of three, tried to pry it open.

"Are you pushing?" Pope gasped with effort. JJ's face contorted. If _his_ arms were hurting with the effort then he didn't even _want_ to know how bad Pope's little noodle arms were taking this.

"Yeah, I'm pushing," JJ rolled his eyes.

"This door is like 700 pounds. It's not gonna budge," Pope grunted.

"We didn't come this far to get this far, all right? We got this," JJ panted. But then he was promptly interrupted by the persistent hissing of something close to his face.

All four of them jumped away from the stone door, Kie shined a light on the opening of the hole at the top of the door.

"A snake!" JJ yelled.

Pope was freaking out. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"That's a moccasin, all right," JJ grinned. "Ye olde Dr. Cottonmouth. Death in tall grass." He knew what he needed to do next, he'd seen it in a nature documentary once. JJ started barking like a bulldog to scare the thing away.

"JJ, shut up. Shut up!" Kie squeaked. Pope almost slapped him upside the head.

"Seriously! You're gonna wake the friggin' dead, man."

JJ just shrugged. Did none of them seriously know that's how to get rid of the snake? "What? They're afraid of dogs. Everyone knows that, man."

John B and Kie rolled their eyes at JJ, probably thinking his earlier creativity was fogging up his brain. JJ knew better. He yanked John B's hand away from the door hole when he reached up.

"Wait, hold on. If there's one, there's probably dozens. All around," JJ nodded.

Kie frowned. "Stop. You're scaring me."

JJ just barked more in reply. It seemed the logical solution to him. John B hit him upside the head.

"Stop barking at the snakes, JJ," he rolled his eyes. JJ moved to complain but Kie and Pope shushed the two of them.

"Look, John– Shut up. John, look. We're not gonna get in there, all right? It's not budging. We should probably just go."

 _Ahhh, Pope_ , JJ thought, _always the voice of reason_.

"I can get through," Kie said quietly.

"What?" John B said, like the idea was out of the question. "No, no, no, no. You think you're gonna fit through the hole?"

"That hole?" Pope agreed with John B, shaking his head. JJ looked up at the hole, then looked at Kie. The girl wasn't wrong, she _could_ fit through. See, John B, the creativity didn't fog up his brain. You don't have to keep the signal clear all the time, Pope, sometimes it helps to light it up a little.

"Look, this is about your dad," Kie sighed. "And honestly, I really don't believe in it, but you deserve to know the truth. I'll do it."

JJ nodded, getting in position ready to help her up. Kie had already made up her mind, there was nothing John B or Pope could do to sway it so they might as well just go with it. Haha, _Just Go With It_. Jennifer Aniston is hot, JJ grinned.

"Alright, give her a boost," John B sighed. JJ smirked.

"Great. I'm gonna boost you, all right. I've seen it in the movies several times. Ready?" JJ got into position, bracing himself against the wall, cupping his hands for Kie to stand on so that he could hoist her up. _Don't ask me how she's supposed to get back out though_ , JJ thought. Possibly the one flaw in their plan...

"Remind me what we're looking for?" Kie asked, trying to keep the wobble from her voice.

"You'll know when you see it," John B said, surely.

"All right, so put your hands right there. –Your foot. –All right, on three."

"All right–" Kie said, but then immediately went before three. JJ rolled his eyes. 

"Okay, never mind. Just forget about three," he rolled his eyes. It didn't matter, he was used to feeling overlooked and unheard, especially when he smoked before they did illegal grave robbing shit like this.

"I got it," Kie called. "Oh. Okay, flashlight?"

Both Pope and John B were quick to give her one, lighting up the inside of the crypt. JJ – for once – was glad it wasn't him. He didn't think he could shake the idea of dead bony hands reaching up from their graves and grabbing his ankles if it were him in there.

He was happy to be the lookout just this once.

"You alive? You got, like, a– a heartbeat and everything?" John B asked, getting more and more worried by the second that his lead had dried up and his hunch was a major fail.

"So far," Kie sighed. "Uh... I need some more light."

John B grunted as he held the gas lamp up higher.

"Did you find something?" JJ grinned, wondering out loud as Kie got quiet for a moment. "Is there gold?"

And then Kie set his heart racing.

" _Oh_. _My_. _God_..."

...


	3. S01E03 : THE FORBIDDEN ZONE

**S01E03 : THE FORBIDDEN ZONE**

JJ pulled another cigarette from his pocket as he played lookout. He barely paid attention to the rustling behind him as Kie handed John B some kind of package through the hole.

"That's not gold," he heard Pope sigh as Kie grunted trying to get herself back onto their side of the stone door.

"Holy shit," John B mused. "This is from my dad."

JJ sighed, clicking his lighter closed in his hand as he lifted his cigarette to his lips. And then his eyes were widening on his exhale as he heard tires approaching them.

"Code red," he hissed in warning. "Code red. Square groupers."

Kie was back through the door, because she looked up at JJ, locking eyes with him and his cloud of smoke.

"Go," she panted. The four of them rushed forwards to hide from whoever had found them

"It's the guys who robbed your house," JJ muttered, more to himself than anyone else. It had to be. Only their luck could get them to be chased by the same two thugs, three times in one day.

The four of them crouched behind the side wall of the crypt, Kie whisper yelling for them to _'turn your lights off, man!'_

"I see something," JJ heard a man say. He couldn't tell if it was the same guy from that morning.

"Do you think it's them?" Kie worried. JJ gave her a grave look.

"Homie's got a gun," he nodded. He didn't know if that was true, but wasn't it safer to assume that whoever it was, _did_ have a gun? Kie rolled her eyes, obviously not believing him.

"Screw this," she muttered, and then the boys were quick to follow her as she darted out from their shitty hiding place and dodged gravestones as they hurried their way back to the van.

JJ heard shouts behind them as they ran. That might have been his fault though – his headlamp was still on. Whoops. Or maybe it was the glow from the cigarette still hanging at his lip.

"Right here!" a man shouted.

The four of them made it to the wrought iron gate and JJ was the first to jump over, then Kie.

"Hurry up!" JJ found himself hissing as John B stumbled over.

"Guys! Guys!" Pope yelled out as John B made it to the van. JJ looked up to see Pope still at the top of the gate.

"Shit," Kie cursed.

"Guys, I'm stuck. I'mstuckI'mstuckI'mstuck guys." Pope started to freak out and JJ knew what he had to do. Or at least, his foggy brain did.

"Pope, come on," he hissed as he pulled his motel gun from his pants. No one else had known he'd brought it, but honestly, they'd have been stupid to go grave robbing without proper protection.

"I got you," Kie said as she tried to go to the gate, hoisting her hand beneath Pope's feet to give him something to push against. JJ raised the gun, aiming it at the gap behind his friend incase whoever was chasing them appeared.

"No. Pope, don't move, okay?" JJ called out, taking aim. John B knocked against JJ to make him drop his aim. He looked at JJ like he thought JJ was incredibly stupid to bring the gun.

"You're gonna rip me," Pope complained as John B then went to help at the gate. "Wait. You're gonna rip me!"

"You're fine. Come on!" Kie called as she pulled out a little swiss knife and cut his pants where they'd snagged on the decorative curly top part of the iron.

JJ grinned, laughing as Pope finally made it over the gate in nothing but his tightie-whities.

"Nice! Come on, dude. It's a little Tootsie Roll," JJ taunted as Pope tried to cover himself up as he ran. Kie was laughing.

"Get in," John B called as he got in the driver's seat. Kie was laughing still as she pulled open the side door and JJ fell inside.

"Stupid!" she grinned, when Pope ducked his head to get in, inadvertently sticking his ass up in the air.

Then John B was screeching away, leaving what appeared to be just the cemetery security guard, gazing up at Pope's torn shorts on the other side of the gate. JJ's cheeks strained from laughing and smiling so hard.

"Did you get it?" he asked. John B just grinned and held up a FedEx package in the dim light of the interior light. JJ felt a winning grin grace his lips as the Pogues whooped and hollered their celebrations into the night air on the drive back to the Chateau.

In the light of the gas torches and lamps around the Chateau, JJ fixed himself a PB sandwich. Turns out, crypt theft made him extremely peckish. Who would've thought? – or maybe it was the little fun aftereffects of his 'creativity' at the cemetery.

"That bread had mold on it three days ago," Pope decided to chime in as he cast his eyes over JJ on the way out of the bathroom. JJ just shrugged.

"I'll just pull off the bad parts. Plus, mold is good for you. It's just a natural organism."

JJ had also eaten worse than moldy bread before. He slapped the topside of his dinner down on the other as Kie called out his name. John B was impatient enough as it was, he didn't need to be waiting extra time for JJ to make a snack.

"Hot damn! Let's do it," JJ grinned, bouncing over furniture to stand behind his best friend. He took a bite of his sandwich, and immediately gagged. Pope rolled his eyes with a 'told you so' purse to his lips.

John B ignored them both, instead opting for ripping open up the package.

"Holy shit..." John B whispered, as he pulled a map from the package labelled " _FOR_ _BIRD",_ whoever that was...

The map was of the Outer Banks coast, that much was obvious.

"Oh. X marks the spot," Pope said, pointing down at the page, right on the coastline. JJ stared down at the map. Below the X, it had a large swirling symbol in one spot that JJ could have sworn was someone's prediction of Aggie – would have been nice to know.

"Longitude, latitude," John B remarked, tracing the horizontal and vertical lines of the page. "Wait, there's somethin' else in there." John B let the rest of the package fall into his open hand. A small device with a red blinking light was there.

"What's that?" JJ said. Sometimes he let his mouth speak before his brain. Kie rolled her eyes at him.

"It's a tape recorder, dumbass."

John B acted like he wasn't listening. He clicked a button on the recorder and a voice spoke into the eerily quiet room.

_"Dear Bird."_

"Who's Bird?" JJ interrupted immediately. The package was for this 'Bird', too. JJ had a feeling he already knew, because the voice on that tape was all too familiar to him.

John B worried his lip between his teeth for a moment. "That's what my dad called me."

 _"I hate to say,_ 'I told you so,' _but I told you so. And you doubted your old man. I suspect at this moment, you're filled with guilt and self-loathing over our last fight, but... don't kill yourself just yet, kid. I didn't expect to find the Merchant either."_

There were a few clattering sounds coming through on the background of the tape, making it harder to hear. JJ resisted the urge to roll his eyes and forced himself instead to concentrate. The Pogues looked around at each other at the words coming through the device.

With the X on the map, and the compass, and the secret messages and the hiding places, and Big John didn't _expect_ to find the Merchant – but _had_ he? Had he stumbled across the old ship? And millions in gold? Was that what this was all about?

That would explain why those two men were so agitated to get the compass back...

JJ's head was swirling with the idea that the gold might be closer than anyone had thought.

 _"You were probably right to call me out. Wasn't exactly Father of the Decade,"_ Big John sighed. _"What can I say, kid? I could smell the barn... And hopefully, we're listenin' to this in our brand-new sugar-shack down in Costa Rica, livin' off passive investments and pulling on permits._

 _"If not, and you find this for less than optimal reasons, well, that's what the map is for... There she is, the wreck of the Merchant. If somethin' happens to me, finish what I started. Go for the gold, kid."_ JJ's jaw dropped. _"I love you, Bird, even if I didn't always act like it... I'll see you on the other side."_

Static crackled through the tape as it finished its reel. Then John B shut it off with a sigh. Then he got up from his seat, leaving the map and the tape on the table as he left the Pogues.

"Holy shit, he did it!" JJ exclaimed, his hands behind his head in disbelief. "Big John– He found the Merchant—"

Kie cut him off with a look. "Can you... can you please?"

JJ turned slightly to see her line of sight and the fact that his friend was sobbing in the doorframe finally registered with him.

_Shit._

"Sorry," JJ managed to say as Pope gave him a less than thrilled look. JJ couldn't help it. He'd gotten too excited. He'd forgotten for a moment how his friend would take this news. Kie moved from her spot to crouch next to John B, folding him into a hug as he cried.

It took a few hours before John B was alright again. And by alright – JJ meant, he was sitting in silence on the pontoon at the end of the jetty with the rest of the Pogues, but not necessarily joining into the conversation. He sat on one of the handrails, his back against a post with his forearms resting on his knees.

Not that there was much talking actually going on.

The gas lamp gave them their only light. Kie was strumming easily on John B's old ukulele. JJ was throwing rocks into the marsh. Pope was sitting the same way as John B, but lower, on the floor of the pontoon, facing John B.

"How much was it again?" JJ asked, as if he needed reminding. As if the amount of gold that Big John had found hadn't been swimming through his head the last few hours.

"Four hundred mil," Pope supplied. JJ pursed his lips, sighing.

"All-right, let's talk the split. Now, before we say 'evenly,' may I remind you that I am the only one that can properly defend us from those groupers who were after us. Protection? Not cheap, okay?" JJ held up the gun – Kie had made him take all the bullets out – for emphasis.

Pope rolled his eyes. "You haven't trained. You've done zero training."

"YouTube, bro!" JJ cut in. "That's at least a five percent bump right there."

"You haven't—" Pope tried. JJ cut him off.

"Any objections? Didn't think so," he said offhandedly, ignoring Kie's steady raise of her hand and the 'what the fuck' look she gave him when he ignored her. "I don't hear any, so..."

Kie just rolled her eyes, turning to the others. "What are you gonna do with your 100 mil, Pope?"

The boy shrugged. "Pay for college in advance. And also, textbooks. Those are expensive."

"What about you, Kie?" JJ looked out at the black water.

"Yeah, what does a socialist do when she's rich?" Pope grinned.

Kie chuckled, but then angled her head to the sky, her answer easy as if it were her lifelong dream.

"Just wanna make a double album... About OBX, the Pogues," she smiled easily. Pope chuckled. "You know, the way _Catch a Fire_ is about Kingston. Record it at Marley Studio, Peter Tosh producing."

"–Peter Tosh is dead," Pope cut in.

Kie nodded. "Peter Tosh is dead. I know that. But, the spirit of Peter Tosh will never die."

"Actually, I know what I'm gonna do," JJ grinned. "I'm gonna get a big ass house on Figure Eight and go full Kook."

"You're gonna go full Kook?" Pope grinned.

JJ smirked, nodding. "Yup. Gonna get a marble statue of myself, and then I'm gonna get a koi pond. Put a bunch of those fish—"

Kie rolled her eyes. "I'm never visiting."

"What are you gonna do, JB?" Pope called out. All three eyed their unstable friend with wary gazes, but hopeful lilts to their smiles.

John B looked down at them from his perch. JJ noted the exhaustion around his friend's eyes.

"To going full Kook."

John B smirked down at them. Kie grinned. JJ's eyes lit up. They each raised their beer in the air, cheers-ing them in the middle of their little circle.

"To going full Kook!" They all chimed. Kie laughed. JJ grinned as they all sat back down and drank. You couldn't buy friends or adventures like these, and his skin prickled with the promise of excitement that beheld them all.

§

Easy morning, the sun high enough in the sky to warrant the heat it rained down on the OBX. JJ was chillin' as John B steered the _Pogue_ easily through the marina towards town. They were all dressed in their casual finest – meaning, the absolute bare minimum in this heat. They were headed out to waste the morning away fishing.

JJ could understand why they needed it after the insane day they'd had before. They all needed a day to chill out and get semi back to normal before they went chasing century old lost treasure.

"You guys see that?" JJ whistled, his eyes on the sleek black and purple boat skimming across the marina towards them. "That's the Malibu 24-MXZ, the world's finest wakesetter. Number one in luxury, quality, and performance. 200K, easy."

"We picked the wrong parents," Pope sighed as the four of them watched the boat glide past them easily. JJ had to check the corner of his mouth for drool. That was a damn sweet ride.

"I hate to break it to you guys, but that's Topper and his girlfriend," Kie rolled her eyes, turning her nose up at them as the couple eased past them in the marina. JJ looked over his shades at the couple, hating the self-assured smirk on Topper's smug little face.

He and his girlfriend and the rest of the Kooks could go shove it as far as he was concerned. They think they can drown Pogues and get them fired? If those people didn't wipe their asses with green, they wouldn't get anywhere in life.

"You don't have to act like you don't see us, bitch," Kie rolled her eyes. JJ could appreciate how good Sarah Cameron looked in the bikini she wore today, but that was about all he appreciated.

The rest of her was kind of snake-like – especially after she'd ratted out John B for borrowing their scuba gear.

Their morning was fairly chill. Fish weren't biting because the sun was too high in the sky, but that had never mattered to JJ or the rest of the Pogues.

It was Summer. They could just spend the day chilling if they really wanted to. – No commitments, no expectations – just how JJ liked it.

The afternoon had other plans for the fantastic foursome, as John B pulled their van to park in at the Kildare Island Country Club. Or, as JJ liked to call it – The Man – seeing as he worked there.

"All right, keep a look out," JJ grinned as he pulled the motel gun from the backpack at his feet. He had reloaded it while Kie wasn't paying attention. "We're behind enemy lines."

"Yo, come on, man. Just put it back," John B frowned.

"What?" JJ was hurt that John B had so little faith in him. "You can never be too careful."

"Hey, I predict that bringing a weapon to a four-star hotel will likely cause more problems than they solve," Pope frowned at him through the open window. JJ rolled his eyes.

"Yes, thank you, Pope," John B agreed.

Kie stuck her head between JJ and John B in the car. "I swear to God, I'm gonna throw that thing in the ocean, JJ. Put it back."

John B grabbed the gun from JJ's hands while he was distracted.

"There you go," Pope rolled his eyes. John B stuffed the gun back into the bag at JJ's feet.

"You can't grab a gun like that," JJ said mournfully, resigned to the fact that his friends were all resident Killjoys. He sighed, getting out of the van and swiping his I.D. from his bag. "Can't forget my badge. Professional busboy."

The four of them made their way up to the main house of the Country Club, where the restaurant and reception were attached.

JJ led the way, Pope right behind him as they weaved through parked cars. "So, where are we going now?"

"We're getting on the internet because only rich people have electricity right now," JJ supplied. "This way!"

They made their way inside through a back entrance. It led them through the industrial kitchen. JJ grinned, calling out to one of his chef friends. "Andrew! What's up, bro?" JJ tilted his chin upwards in greeting to some of the other servers working today. He rounded the corner to one of the sioux chefs, moving to swipe a stray seasoned shrimp from the plate she held. "Mama L, good to see you!"

"Hey, no! JJ!" she snapped, slapping his hand away with a wooden spoon before he could grab the seafood. He made a face at her, which she returned in full. JJ just smirked, rolling his eyes a little as he led the other Pogues through the kitchen and out to reception.

"See, they got the backup generators going?" JJ rolled his eyes. "Kooks don't miss a beat."

JJ's eyes surveyed the area as he led them through reception and towards the recreational areas of the Club. He knew there was a rec room full of computers that they could put to good use. His brows furrowed when his gaze fell on his manager talking to one curly haired little cutie.

Katie didn't notice him, but he was curious as to why she was here, especially speaking to his boss. Their conversation looked serious yet casual? JJ wondered what was going on with her being here, but he'd have to ask around with the other servers some other time.

JJ's eyes darted around them as he led the group down the lone corridor towards the computer room, then with his keycard I.D. opened the door and quickly let them in.

"Sweet Lord, the internet!" Pope cheered, racing forward. JJ made sure the others were inside before closing the door behind them. "I've missed you."

"Hey! Let me get in there," JJ grinned. "Gotta check out my Insta models." JJ hadn't realized how much he missed his wifi until it was gone.

Kie rolled her eyes at him. "We don't have time." She pushed him out of the way with a small shove to his shoulder.

Pope was struggling with the internet. While it was working, it was slow as shit because of the generators. Still, it was better than nothing.

"This is gonna take forever," Pope complained.

"JJ, go on lookout." John B looked pointedly at him, to which JJ normally would have grumbled something about how he was always being left on lookout duty, but today he wasn't so mad about it.

He nodded and moved towards the door. He took his post, peering through the small square of glass embedded in the door like it had come from a library or something. The corridor stayed mostly deserted for the first five minutes, that was, until JJ noticed his manager begin walking their way.

And Katie was still with him.

"Shit," he cursed under his breath. His eyes were wide, ready to duck out of view at any moment, but then Katie's eyes moved slightly to catch his. He gave her a wide eyed glance – panic stricken – and though confused, she seemed to catch his drift. It also might have been his frantic hand signals that had clued her in.

Pogues looked out for Pogues.

JJ put a finger to his lips, urging her not to let the manager know he was there, and while her brows furrowed, she gave him a slight nod.

She turned around so that the manager's back was to JJ, which JJ could have kissed her for – well, actually... he could have kissed her for a lot of things. He was just especially thankful for her saving his ass right now and not getting him fired.

Their conversation continued for another few minutes, none of which JJ could hear because the door was surprisingly thick, but eventually, his manager walked away, leaving Katie alone to raise her eyebrow in question at JJ.

JJ looked over his shoulder at his friends who were still trying to use the computer, then decided it was safe to at least go outside and explain himself. Making sure the door didn't squeak as it moved, JJ shut it behind him and made his way over to Katie. She had her arms crossed casually across her chest, a cheeky glint in her eyes.

"What the hell was that about?" she asked, her eyebrow raised in curiosity.

JJ felt himself shake his head, his hands gesturing waywardly. "No, nothing. We just needed these guys' power to research something for a second and it's sort of off limits to staff so I could get fired if they find us in here. Speaking of, why are _you_ here?"

Katie shrugged. "I was answering an ad about a possible job. You're welcome for getting rid of him by the way. How did you get in?"

JJ smirked, holding up his key card. "I work here, too."

"As...? Obviously not a researcher?" she smirked, nodding once.

JJ found himself chuckling. "A waiter."

She raised an eyebrow. "Uhh..huhhh...," she trailed off, shifting her weight to her other foot. Then she raised herself on the tips of her toes, trying to peer over his shoulder and into the room at his friends. "What are you researching?"

"Uhhh... just a Summer project," JJ fibbed. "Helping Pope with some independent study to look good for his college scholarship interview because he doesn't have enough extra credits." JJ felt pretty happy with his lie.

It wouldn't be a total lie if Pope actually _did_ mention their 'independent study' in his college interview. However, it was obvious to JJ through the raise of Katie's brow and the smirk playing about her eyes that she didn't quite believe him.

"Alright, whatever," she rolled her eyes, then turning and beginning to walk away. She looked over her shoulder at him with a smirk. "But, you owe me now, Maybank."

JJ grinned after her, glad she felt comfortable enough to go along with his lie.

"You got it, Kook," he grinned. She rolled her eyes, flipping him the bird over her shoulder in acknowledgement as she walked off. She didn't turn back around.

JJ took the opportunity to watch her walk away from him, appreciating the bounce in her step. The smirk gracing his lips surprised him, because it felt different than usual. His cheeks felt slightly warm too, and was that his heart slightly irregular that he could feel in his palms?

 _What the hell is happening to me,_ he thought. _Get it together, dude._

Then, letting his eyes sweep the hallway once more, he ducked back into the computer room where John B was pulling out the map. They'd finally made it onto some website that Pope had found that could help them.

"Coordinates, please?" Pope chimed.

"34° 57' 30" north. 75° 55' 42" west." John B looked down at the screen, determined. The screen zoomed in on the OBX coast, showing different colors in the ocean for different depths. "Boom, continental shelf right there."

"Okay, well, if it's off the deep end, it's not gonna be much of a treasure hunt, is it?" Pope sighed.

JJ grinned as the computer zoomed in further on that little red balloon that marked the exact coordinates they were looking for. "Come on, baby. Come on," he coaxed, willing it to work.

John B gasped, a grin on his lips. "Shit, it's on the high side. It's only 900 feet."

JJ grinned, too. "Yeah, that's not too deep."

"Is that doable or something?" Kie wondered aloud. JJ gave her a reassuring shrug that she did not find reassuring at all.

"Yeah, totally doable."

Pope gave him an exasperated look over his shoulder. "Oh, so will we be taking your _personal_ submarine?" JJ resisted the urge to stick out his tongue at his sarcastic friend.

"Yeah, how do you know this, Mr. Dive Master?"

JJ rolled his eyes at all of them. They needed to learn to trust him more. He shoved his hands in his pockets with a shrug. "The salvage yard. They got a drone that can drop 1,000 feet. It has a 360 camera and everything. It's for, like, deep dives and stuff. It's exactly what we need."

John B considered it for a moment. "And, can your dad get his grimy little hands on that?"

JJ bristled at the mention of his dad but shook it off. "Well, my dad's grimy little hands got his ass fired. I guess the salvage captain frowns on showing up shitfaced, turns out." The others sighed helplessly but JJ reassured them. "But the drone's there. It's in the impound yard out back."

Kie frowned as they all looked from JJ to the computer screen and back to JJ again, unsure.

"How much did you say was on the Royal Merchant again?" she asked.

"400 million."

"400 mil." John B and JJ replied instantaneously.

Kie sighed. "400 _million_ dollars?"

JJ knew why she was skeptical. That number sounded way too unrealistic. But, then again, it was a century ago and back then, kings and queens didn't really care where the fuck they sent their gold, or even how it was transported, otherwise they'd have spent way longer trying to find their precious treasure.

Not let it just get lost at sea.

"Yep," JJ nodded. Pope was out of his seat before the others could react. Then he was using his body to block the door, not letting them out.

See? Killjoy. Doesn't know how to have fun.

"No. Absolutely not," Pope shook his head as the other three advanced on him. "Absolutely not. No!"

Kie gave him a strong look. "Pope! Move."

Pope shook his head. "Guys, 400 mill, that's too—"

Kie just pushed past him, cutting him off. John B had already turned off the computer. "Come on," Kie lamented as she walked out the door and past Pope. The boy sighed. JJ grinned, his friend was outnumbered on this one.

"Can't we do anything legal for money?" Pope sighed mournfully. John B just chuckled, clapping him on the back as they walked.

"Just go, man."

JJ led them all back through the Country Club, back through the kitchen. By the time they got back to the van, he felt disappointed. It wasn't until they were on the road that he realized it was because he hadn't caught a glimpse of Katie on the way out.

They swapped out the van for Kie's dad's truck, so that they could pull the _Pogue_ behind them. It was a crucial part of their plan.

Then they were on the familiar road to the salvage yard. JJ hadn't been there in a few months, not since the last day he'd needed to pick up his dad. Bobby -the security guard- hadn't let him drive home because he suspected he'd had too much to drink.

So, JJ had had to come and get him.

"Pope, we're not _stealing_ the drone," John B said. "We're borrowing it."

JJ grinned, fiddling with his lighter, tracing the 'JJ' he'd carved into it, flipping it open and closed, feeling reassured by the sound it made.

"Humans are the only animal that can't tell fantasy from reality," Pope replied. John B's eyebrows furrowed. JJ was barely paying attention. Pope said a lot of weird shit like that.

"Did you come up with that?" John B asked. Pope rolled his eyes, shaking his head. JJ was distracted by the rolling papers he was trying to fill. He licked it, sealing it closed with a grin.

"No, Albert Bernstein came up with it, but it applies to this whole treasure-hunting thing."

"Oh."

"So, which is it? Fantasy or reality?" Pope asked. JJ smiled wistfully.

"Why are you so weird, Pope?"

"It's fantasy, but possible reality," Kie said from the passenger seat.

"Reality." John B's voice sounded sure. JJ grinned, flicking open his lighter to flame up his freshly rolled smoke.

"Virtual reality?" he grinned, winding up Pope. Pope just gave him a look, then pulled the joint from JJ's lips, throwing it amongst the shit covering the floor of the van.

"Keep the signal clear."

JJ rolled his eyes, annoyed that he couldn't even have the smoke – after all that effort and concentration that it took to roll it. _Do you know how hard that is to do in the back of a moving van on bumpy roads and shit?_ Rude. "You know what your problem is?"

"You?"

"No! It's that you need to relax, man," JJ grinned. Nothing wrong with a little weed. "You're always so tense!"

"I'm not too tense," Pope said, his eyes hard. Then they were getting out of the van, just a little ways down the road to the salvage yard. The plan was for Kie to distract Bobby while the boys broke into the back to take the drone.

The boys found themselves hiding behind a bunch of wrecked boat junk to watch Kie ask for help in pumping up a flat tire.

"How's it going with Kiara?" JJ asked John B, needing a distraction to let go of his memories of this place.

"It's not awkward, weird, or anything," was John B's sarcastic reply. JJ snorted.

"Yeah. Honestly, I did not think you were gonna actually listen to me."

"What?"

"I was 100 percent sure she was into you, bro," JJ shrugged. "Pope would agree."

Pope made a noise like he never would have agreed with JJ.

"So, like, Kie, she, like, definitely gave you the Heisman?" JJ grinned.

John B nodded. "Oh, no question. Yup."

"Gotcha."

Both boys chuckled.

"Maybe she's just into somebody else..." Pope shrugged. JJ gave him an odd look but shook it off. He focused back on Kie. She had lured Bobby away from the gate so that they could slip around the back.

"It's just this back one right here," she said. "I mean, it must've been a slow leak or something."

Bobby nodded. "It's probably just been sitting in the yard too long."

JJ and the others took that as their cue to head out, as Bobby crouched down to fix the tire. JJ led them through the salvage yard and round to one of the back buildings that Bobby kept locked.

He pulled a sticky note from his back pocket, the one that had the padlock numbers written on it to open it. He tried a few times with shaky hands, but the thing didn't budge. His breath was panting hard through his lips and he grunted.

"Do you have the right numbers?" Pope demanded, his voice panicked.

JJ finally gave up. "Alright, so I might have the wrong numbers."

"Ah, damn it!"

Then suddenly a dog was barking. They all turned to see Bobby's German Shepherd guard dog racing at them. John B dipped almost immediately.

"That's a cougar. Never mind," he said, then raced around the edge of the building and out of sight. JJ tried to wave the dog off.

"Hi! No, stay there! Good boy. No, you're okay!" he said, trying to back away, then his eyes were on Pope. "Pope, run!"

Pope picked up a stick from the ground and began waving it back and forth in front of the dog. "Back off! Back off! Back off!"

The dog didn't let up, still barking its head off and no doubt alerting Bobby that three kids were here to steal shit from him. JJ unwrapped the bandanna from his neck and held it up.

"I got a toy, boy!" JJ called, holding the bandanna and waving it around. Bad idea. The dog ran at him. "Wait, no. I was just kidding. _Shit_! Okay, sit!"

The dog chased him through the salvage yard. JJ knew the dog would catch up to him, so he sprinted straight to the closest rusted up boat, climbing up the ladder and into the safety of the deck.

But shit, as usual, he wasn't thinking. How was he supposed to get down? Especially with the dog holding it's position at the bottom two rungs of the ladder and barking up at JJ like he was about to be his next meal.

If Bobby found him there, he might very well be.

"What's that, huh? What's that, Tebow?" JJ heard Bobby say from below. Huh – _Tebow_ – cute. "What you got, huh? What you got?"

Tebow the dog barked in reply.

"Whoever's up there better come on out!" Bobby yelled up at the boat. JJ cowered on the deck out of side, biting his lip. Shit, he knew what he had to do to get out of this alive. "I mean it! Don't make me go up there and get your ass!"

JJ raised his hands where Bobby could see them. "Wait, Bobby! Don't shoot. It's me, JJ... Luke's kid?"

JJ moved into view, his bottom lip shaking as he called tears to his eyes. Bobby looked up at him, recognition dawning on him as he used one hand to calm down the dog.

"What are you doin'?"

JJ sniffled. "I swear, okay? I didn't want to, okay? My dad made me."

Bobby glared at him, pointing a finger. "Don't you lie."

JJ took a shaky breath. Should he become an actor? This was the best performance of his life! And that was saying something when he'd had as many run ins with Shoupe as _he_ had. "He told me Captain Leo kept his cutting torch. You know, after he got fired. He said if I didn't get it for him, he was gonna... he was gonna hit me again."

Bobby's eyes widened. "Son of a bitch!" he muttered. JJ winced.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed. Bobby softened, moving the dog out of the way.

"Look... just– come on down," he said. JJ followed orders, backing up down the ladder until he was on his feet in front of Bobby. "I almost killed you!"

JJ nodded, sniffling, wiping at his eye. "I know. I'll just come up with somethin'. Tell him I couldn't find it."

Bobby frowned, worry in his eyes, but he nodded. JJ's family life wasn't really his business, especially now that his dad didn't work for Bobby anymore. "All right."

"Sorry," JJ apologized again, then turned on his heel, walking away from the security guard. Only when they weren't eye to eye did a grin fall on JJ's lips as he wiped away the tears in the corners of his eyes.

_Piece of cake._

When he made it back to the others. John B had somehow broken in to steal the drone while Bobby and the dog were distracted, so at least this trip was still a win.

"How'd you get him to let you go?" Kie voiced. JJ just shrugged.

"Oh, you know. Charm and rugged good looks and all that." There was no way he was telling the others. They didn't know much about JJ's relationship with his dad, but they knew enough. No need to make them worry - JJ didn't need their pity.

He couldn't stand that look in people's eyes.

"I call bullshit," Pope grinned, making the four of them laugh as they headed back to the Chateau.

§

Katie waded her way through the sea of drunk Kooks. She'd been called out to a house party on Figure Eight that looked like it was getting right into the swing of things. Keeping to herself as she moved through the open front door, through the living room and out to the patio and the pool where most of the kids her age were congregating, Katie kept her eyes on the floor.

She could feel the bass pumping through her feet.

No one seemed to pay her any mind, despite her being out of place here. Tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, she scanned the group outside, looking for Kelce. It was his party after all – or his house at least.

 _Kook. Kook. Tourist. Kook_ , she noted as she scanned. Not a single Pogue. She shouldn't have been surprised.

Katie thought that the whole 'two tribes, one island' thing was a complete joke. Way too immature, but then again, people were assholes and would discriminate or bully others for any given reason. Learned hatred and all that.

It was why she'd been happy to stay out of it the past year, not that any of these people had noticed she'd not been seen around the OBX all year. So far, JJ Maybank had been the only person to delight in her return. Everyone else had seemingly forgotten she existed.

Not that Katie really minded that.

Finally, her gaze found Kelce. He was standing by the pool, surrounded by a group of bikini girls. Katie rolled her eyes but made her way over. She didn't know what the party was for – just a random Summer night was her guess – because as far as she was aware, it wasn't anyone's birthday.

Walking up behind Kelce, she tapped him on the shoulder. The look that he gave her when he turned around was only one of _slight_ irritation. She didn't care that she'd interrupted one of his many chances to get laid tonight. She was doing _him_ the favor, so he could suck it up.

"You called me about a broken speaker?" she raised her brow at him. It took him a moment to respond, probably due to whatever dark liquid was occupying the red solo cup in his hand.

He nodded. "Oh, yeah. You're the Pogue who supplied the equip, right?" he slurred, a roll to his eyes. Katie took a breath. It wouldn't do her any good to argue with him or be aggressive. But she really did hate that word – that _label_.

Katie nodded. "Yes. Can you show me the problem? Hopefully I can fix it for you...?"

Kelce grimaced but nodded. He squeezed the ass of the girl standing at his right, to which she giggled, before he stepped away, motioning for Katie to follow.

"The deck is wrecked, too," Kelce said. "I hope you know I'm not gonna pay for the rental on this shit if it's faulty."

Katie gave him a tight smile. "Of course. Let's just see what I can do to fix it first before we make any rash decisions."

Kelce didn't answer her, probably wasn't even listening. He led her into the living room where the DJ station was. She'd come out earlier with her cousin to set it up – it was his stuff anyway. The only reason Katie was here to fix it instead of Matty was because he was on a date with his girlfriend.

He made good money renting out his decks and tables in the Summer to Kook parties like this that went all night. Katie was happy to take tonight's share seeing as she was the one doing all the work on it.

Katie stepped up to have a look at the system. There was a laptop connected to the deck, as well as the speakers they'd supplied. The speakers were on, as was the deck, but no sound was coming out.

"What music is playing right now?" Katie asked.

Kelce rolled her eyes.

"Spotify, through the Bluetooth sound system," he said, like it was obvious. Katie wanted to ask why he needed a DJ table for his party if his sound system worked this well anyway.

He seemed to see the question in her eyes. "The deck and speakers sound more _authentic_ ," he rolled his eyes. Katie resisted the urge to roll her own – _could this guy have been more of a douchebag?_

Instead, she nodded, checking out the wiring.

"Okay, well, this is an easy fix. This is your laptop?" she asked.

Kelce shrugged. "Someone brought it round and plugged it in."

Katie nodded. This was the most ridiculous reason she'd ever been called out to a job. "Okay, well the only thing wrong is the laptop has been plugged into the wrong port. Let me just switch it over and it should work fine."

Kelce raised a brow at her. "Seriously?"

Katie nodded with a slight shrug. She was surprised they hadn't already tried just switching the connection to a different port to save her the trip out here tonight. But then again – she shouldn't have expected them to do anything for themselves.

Katie moved the cord between the ports and opened the laptop. There was no passcode on it, so she got into the playlist easily.

Turning down the volume so as not to interrupt anyone's _vibe_ at the party with the current music, she opened the _Pandora_ app of whosever laptop this was – pretentious. Putting on the headphones, she could hear the music sync up and begin playing through all the speakers. She gave Kelce a thumbs up from where she stood. His eyebrows rose in surprise and slight annoyance – like that now it was fixed, he was pissed he'd actually have to pay her for making it work, plus extra for coming out of her way to 'fix' it.

Typical entitled kids who thought they could get out of paying for something they'd agreed to rent. Katie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She got down from the podium that the system stood on and walked up to Kelce.

"The volume is down right low at the moment, so whenever you'd like to change over from the Bluetooth system to the deck, just twist the volume knob to turn it up and it'll work perfectly," she supplied. Kelce gave a grumbling look but nodded.

"Fine. Thanks."

She gave him a tight smile. "No problem. Just give me another call if you have any more troubles."

Kelce was barely listening though as he walked away. Katie rolled her eyes, ready to leave, until she heard the commotion on the back deck.

"Topper's on the roof!"

"Yeah, my man on the roof!"

"On the rooooof!"

"Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!"

Katie followed the chanting out to the pool and looked up at the roof curiously. Topper Thornton was holding Sarah Cameron in his arms – bridal style – as he stood at the edge of the roof over the pool.

"JUMP! JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!" the crowd cheered. Katie watched as Sarah's screams filled the air as her boyfriend jumped them off the roof, landing straight in the pool and drenching the rest of the party guests standing close enough. Katie backed out of the way in time to not get her shoes wet.

She didn't need to be walking home from Matty's house in soggy socks.

When the couple surfaced, the party crowd around Katie cheered. Sarah was gasping with a grin on her face and Topper was letting out a series of whoops into the air.

"Can you believe this girl right here?" he called out across the water. "The coolest chick in the OBX! That's what I'm talkin' about!"

Katie watched them in the water – illuminated by the fluorescent lights. She rose her brow, not participating in the hype that everyone else seemed to be so enjoying. This was what happened when every single person around you was drunk off their asses and you were the only sober one.

And this is what happened when you were surrounded by idiots who got their jollies from risking their necks. Katie rolled her eyes, turning to leave.

She caught her gaze on Sarah Cameron for just a moment, locking eyes with the other girl. Sarah's lips parted, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion at seeing Katie there. Katie knew she looked out of place, probably thanks to her casual shorts and tank top combination amongst all the other people at this party. She was probably the most dressed person there.

Katie shrugged, dropping Sarah's gaze as she walked from the party now that her curiosity had been filled. She could feel Sarah's confused eyes on her back as she left.

§

While Kooks were entertaining themselves at parties, JJ and his friends were rustling up some grub at _The Wreck_ – or at least trying to.

"Stealing drones makes you hungry," Kie remarked as they walked inside.

"What I would do to a beer and shrimp and grits right now..." JJ groaned, practically falling out of the van.

"It would not be pretty," Pope smirked. JJ watched as Kie walked over to her dad, the owner of the successful tourist restaurant. His success was the reason for Kie's family's cook lifestyle.

John B and Pope were distracted by the rumbling of their stomachs as they looked at the few diners in the restaurant, while JJ was focused on Kie and her father. His friend frowned.

"Guess now is not the best time to ask for free food for me and my friends?" she asked, her eyes hopeful. Mr. C looked over at the three boys with a sigh and the roll of his eyes.

"Look at them. They're greedy pelicans. I thought I told you to stop hanging around these guys?"

"These are my friends," Kie admonished after another moment of conversation, exasperation on her face and pleading in her voice. The boys gave him a slight wave. They weren't _trying_ to listen to their conversation, but...

Mr. C chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"Look... Well, I– I got– I gotta throw it out. Might as well take it," he gave in. Kie grinned, throwing her arms around her father.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome," he rolled his eyes. "I'll bring it out."

Kie grinned, walking over to the other Pogues. "Sit down."

"Oh, yes!" JJ let out a laugh. Then they gorged themselves on the leftovers of Mr. C's famous shrimp parm fries among the rest of the delicious food that he made.

As the other patrons left the restaurant and Mr. C shut up shop for the night to clean, he put on some vibey chill music and just let the Pogues hang out – dancing and eating and enjoying that day's absolute win.

They got the drone. Next step – _the gold_.

§

The next morning, the Pogues were back at the Chateau. More specifically – hanging out on the pontoon at the end of the Jetty. JJ stood behind Pope on the deck, looking at the computer screen connected to the drone.

John B and Kie were in the water, taking turns diving down and pulling faces in front of the drone to make sure that the camera worked properly. That was the most important part. If the drone didn't work, they could kiss the Royal Merchant goodbye.

"What's this?" JJ asked, leaning forward to reach for the handheld device Pope had a grip on.

"Don't touch that," Pope reprimanded, very nearly slapping his friend's hand away. "I'm trying to work out this thing."

JJ kissed his teeth in disappointment, but shook his head, impressed. "God bless geeks, Pope. Truly, man. What would we do without you to control the drones?"

Pope rolled his eyes. JJ smirked as he could hear the annoyance in his friend's tone.

"It's not a drone. It's an R.O.V."

JJ just shook him off. "Shut up. Shut up. –It's too early for that right now."

John B surfaced, treading water next to Kie.

"Hey, once we get footage of the wreck, we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim," he said. JJ rolled his eyes.

"It's such bullshit. Why do we have to do that?" JJ knew that any scummy lawyer on this island or even on the mainland would see their formal claim and try to pry the gold from their hands because _they were just kids._ Suffice to say, JJ didn't trust lawyers. They were on the same level as cops.

"Well, there is maritime salvage law. You can't just go to the ocean floor and scoop a bunch of stuff up." Pope looked at JJ over his shoulder. JJ just shrugged, going to lean on the railing and look out at John B and Kie.

"I know. I know. It's just... lawyers aren't cheap, bro," JJ said, making a very good point. They'd charge a fucking killing if their client found the gold.

"Well," John B shrugged. "As soon as they see the footage, they'll work for a comp."

JJ rolled his eyes. Nothing was ever that easy. Kie swam forward to the ladder at the pontoon, beginning to climb out. Weeks ago, JJ would have blatantly stared at the way the water dripped down her exposed skin and admired the way her bikini fit her so well. Now, he barely paid attention.

Maybe it was because he knew Kie was into John B – kind of. Or maybe it was because he knew he was into Katie Daykin. Which was weird, because they'd only had three conversations since he'd seen her back around The Cut – and two out of those three hadn't even really counted.

Kie sat at the top of the ladder, looking out at John B. "How do you know all of that?"

The other boy shrugged in the water. "'Cause my dad said it, like, a million times."

Kie nodded. "Yeah, that's fair."

"Yo, this tether is, like, really long... In the wrong weather, it could get pushed around," Pope muttered, eyeing the roll of yellow cord attached to the drone. All three of them looked out at John B like he was their leader. For this adventure, he kind of was, seeing as it was all about finding out what happened to his dad.

"Then we'll go at dead calm."

JJ's eyes flicked to the sky as thunder rumbled over them. It seemed to be a reoccurring theme since Aggie had hit, like she had the gall to threaten a second wave. They hadn't had a good clear day since. Let alone a dead calm one.

"At slack tide?" Kie asked. Pope sighed.

"So now, we just gotta wait around for the right weather... And today is not that day."

JJ felt his hope be diminished slightly. At this rate, they wouldn't have a day with the right conditions to search for the shipwreck for _months..._

§

So, in the weeks that they waited for the right conditions to search for the wreck, JJ busied himself with his work at the Country Club, and by helping out Heyward.

"You boys get these groceries over to Figure Eight," Heyward called out, handing over bags of packed food to JJ and Pope.

JJ's eyes were on the huge fishing rig making its way past them. The breeze was with them, whipping JJ's shaggy hair into his eyes – enough to need sunglasses today.

"Get straight back here when you're done. No fishin'. I promised delivery by this afternoon. Rich folks don't wanna wait for you lazy sons of... Oh, JJ, thank you," Heyward said as JJ raised his arms to accept the grocery bags. "...sons of bitches."

"Right," Pope said, rolling his eyes at his dad. They packed the food onto Heyward's fishing boat. They were helping out because Heyward had agreed to loan them the larger boat if they did this job for him. Heyward didn't know they needed the boat to go deep diving for a wreck on the continental shelf.

He just figured the boys were planning some deep-water fishing, because there was no way the _Pogue_ would be able to handle the open water out there.

As they steered the fishing boat through the canals surrounding Figure Eight, Pope whistled. JJ was sitting easily on the dashboard of the vessel as Pope steered. He flicked a large knife between his fingers, rolling it over his knuckles.

"Doesn't even look like the storm hit there."

JJ shrugged, looking over his shoulder as the knife stilled between his fingers. He rolled his eyes. "That's because they got generators, bro. Get used to it. And then they say the juice will be out all Summer at The Cut."

Pope sighed, shaking his head. "It's nice to be a Kook."

JJ nodded serenely. "Lucky bastards..."

Delivering groceries that afternoon was easy enough. Heyward was well liked around the island by both Kooks and Pogues, which meant his customers were relatively easy to deal with. It came with the territory of having the best fresh seafood on the island.

Most of JJ's deliveries for the day were old rich couples who couldn't make it to the market themselves. And they were good tippers, which didn't hurt.

At his last house of the day, however, JJ was met at the door by none other than Allison Meyers. She was a Kook, close friends with Sarah Cameron and her boyfriend Topper. JJ had fucked her once. But, once she'd realized he was a Pogue, she'd slapped him and called him worthless. Safe to say, they hadn't spoken since.

He grimaced when she answered the door, unable to help himself.

"Uhh... delivery from Heyward's."

Allison looked down her nose at him but nodded once. She rolled her eyes as she opened the door wider. He noticed the way her manicured fake nails tapped against the painted wood.

"Yeah. In the kitchen," she said, then she turned into the house, angling her head up the giant staircase. "Mom! Jake! Food!"

JJ ignored her yelling, instead walked past her and through the house into the kitchen. He heard footsteps on the stairs as an attractive middle-aged woman walked into the room. Allison was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, thankyou, Honey," she smiled at JJ as he placed two grocery bags on the marble benchtop. "Please do tell Heyward that we'll be ordering from him again next week. I like that he's on time with these deliveries."

The woman gave JJ a kind smile and he couldn't help nodding.

"No problem, Mrs. Meyers," he nodded. The woman smiled and pressed a crisp hundred-dollar bill into his hand. JJ didn't bother unpacking, just gave the woman a wave and headed back out.

Once he was through the front door, JJ was about to make his way back to the canal where he knew Pope had parked the boat, but his eyebrows rose in surprise as he saw Allison talking to two other teens at a truck out the front of the house.

Katie Daykin and her cousin Matty were unpacking a bunch of technical gear from the back of the beat up truck. JJ recognized a speaker and something else as Allison leant against the car and tapped away on her phone.

JJ stopped for a moment and Katie seemed to notice his eyes on her, because she looked up. Catching his eye, she smiled. Then she said something to her cousin before dropping down from the truck and jogging over to him. JJ was surprised, he hadn't expected her to come over, he was planning more of just a wave hello before leaving.

"Hey," she smiled. "What are you doing here?"

JJ grinned, shrugging, liking the way her pretty brown eyes seemed to swirl with her smile.

"Grocery delivery. You?"

Katie grinned. "Oh, I've just been helping Matty rent out and set up his DJ sound system for the Summer. All these guys throwing parties on Figure Eight like the system because it sounds 'authentic' or something." She rolled her eyes with a slight laugh. JJ couldn't help but grin. "To be honest, I don't hear a difference to their in-home sound systems, but I won't complain. It's easy enough work and the money is good."

JJ grinned.

"Yeah? I didn't know he rented out his stuff...?"

Katie smiled, shrugging. "Yeah, when he's not out with Eliza."

JJ smiled, deciding to shoot his shot. "Well, hey, I've uh... I've gotta go meet up with Pope, but... I mean, if you ever get an actual invite to one of these parties..." He trailed off with a grin and Katie had the nerve to blush. JJ noted that she looked good flushed like that. He wanted to see that more often.

"Yeah, I mean... as long as it's not just to serve up trouble," she grinned, eyeing him like she knew him inside and out. JJ just smirked.

"Shit, well.... you know me, always up to something."

Katie just grinned before turning away.

"I'll see you around, Jay."

"JJ," he cut in, liking that this was almost an inside joke with them now.

"Mmhmm," was her reply, making JJ's grin widen. She waved him away as she went back to her cousin. As JJ walked back to the marina where Heyward's boat was docked, he had an almighty smile threatening to split his face in two. Today had been a pretty sweet day.

When he stepped onto the boat, he couldn't help his excitement showing through.

"Pope! Dude, you are not going to believe what just happened to me, man!" he whooped. "That was the best 100 bucks I've ever made! When I say count me in on all these grocery deliveries, Pope, I mean it."

JJ hopped up onto the boat, practically skipping towards his unusually quiet friend. Pope stood at the wheel, his cap down over his eyes.

"What's up with you? Bro, you good?" JJ sat down, looking closer at his friend. He finally noticed the tears tracks staining his face.

His stomach dropped. "Yo, what happened to your face, dude?" JJ removed his friend's cap, even though Pope tried to stop him. His jaw dropped when he saw the congealed blood at his temple. "Jesus! What happened?" JJ felt his skin crawling, his hands starting to shake.

Pope sniffed, his eyes on the horizon as he sailed them away. "Rafe and Topper jumped me. They said no Pogues on _their_ side of the island."

JJ felt himself gritting his teeth, his hands clenched. His happy mood was just completely gone. He hated those sons of bitches. They thought they could do anything they wanted just because cash lined their pockets. And now they were taking it out on Pope? Nuh uh. That was not gonna fly with JJ. Not in a million years.

JJ hated that broken tone in his friend's voice.

"What are you gonna do?" JJ scowled. Pope finally turned to his friend, giving JJ a steely look like he'd made up his mind hours ago. Probably had done – while JJ had been off flirting with pretty girls. That made him feel unbelievably shit.

Pope steered them through the canals – unfamiliar to JJ but Pope knew them like the back of his hand. They wound up in front of a house JJ _did_ recognize – Topper Thornton's.

The boat came to a slow and steady halt, drifting slowly away from the Thornton jetty. Topper's boat was moored there. JJ bit his lip as the two boys made it to the back of their boat, looking out at it.

"2020 Malibu, 24-MXC," Pope said, reciting what JJ had said about the boat weeks ago. "The world's finest wakesetter. Number one in quality, luxury, and performance."

JJ licked his lips, his eyes squinting in the setting sun.

"This is war, Pope. They hit us, we hit them." He already knew what his friend was planning. He could see it in the boy's eyes. "Do it."

JJ wasn't one to turn away from a fight, and if Pope wasn't going to jump in and do it, JJ would. No one deserved to be ambushed like that. No one deserved to be hit like that. Who did Topper and Rafe think they were?

Shit like that boiled JJ's blood. The fact they thought they could do that to _his_ friend – his _family_ – that shit wasn't gonna fly.

JJ moved a bandanna over the lower parts of his face, shielding them from any passer-by who might be able to identify them. Then he slid his shades over his eyes as Pope stripped out of his t-shirt. His heart was pounding as Pope jumped off the side of the boat and swam quickly over to Topper's wakesetter.

JJ was happy to play lookout for once, keeping his eyes pealed for anyone who might catch them.

The thrill of the chase. A cat and mouse game. Usually, JJ didn't like being the mouse, but in this case, the thought of destroying something belonging to someone who hurt is friends, well... that shit made his fingers jitter with excitement.

JJ watched as his friend made it up and into the boat. Then he was pulling the plug from Topper's wakesetter. The thing hissed, then bubbled slowly, and JJ watched as it began to sink into the easy ripples that rocked against it.

Pope abandoned ship and swam back to Heyward's boat. JJ got the ladder ready to help him up. When he clambered himself up, JJ had the urge to slap his friend on the back in congratulations. He never thought he'd be there the day Pope actually grew some balls, but he was glad the time had finally come.

As Pope willed himself dry, JJ grinned, yanking the bandanna off his mouth.

"Wow, you did it!" JJ grinned, pocketing his shades as Pope produced the plug to Topper's boat. "I'm so proud of you right now. Holy crap."

JJ was amped. He wanted to jump off a cliff, his adrenaline was that high.

"JJ?"

"Yeah?"

Pope gave him a hard look, the water dripping from his tightly coiled hair. "You can't tell anybody."

JJ shook him off. What did Pope take him for. "Oh, no, yeah. Totally, dude." JJ was like a steel trap, but still, Pope was looking at him like he had loose lips.

"No, I'm serious, dude," Pope admonished. "Not Kie, not John B, nobody."

JJ pursed his lips for a moment before nodding. He'd never kept a secret from John B – never. But right now, Pope had a look in his eyes that JJ had never seen from him before, and it had him agreeing faster than he'd have expected.

"Yup, my lips are sealed. Give me that. Give me that." JJ took the plug from his friend before throwing it wide out into the canal in the opposite direction to the half-sunk wakesetter. "Okay! Let's get outta here."

The wakesetter was practically gone – disappeared beneath the surface – by the time they started up the boat and got the hell out of there.

They got the boat back to Heyward and then headed for the Chateau. John B and Kie had left a note that they'd gone surfing, so the boys decided to join them.

Down at their favorite stretch of beach, the boys paddled out on their boards to where their friends were sitting easily behind the breaching waves.

"Hey! Save some waves for us!" JJ grinned as they jumped in and paddled out.

Kie was grinning at them as John B hollered. "Hey, where you been?" she called out with a laugh. The afternoon spent surfing was really the only thing JJ had planned for this Summer. He hadn't expected to find a sunken Grady-White or a gun in an abandoned motel room.

He definitely hadn't expected to point that gun at so many people, much less search for sunken treasure. He hadn't expected to be so captivated by a girl he knew so little about.

And yet, all of those things also seemed so normal to him. He'd grown up thinking that in the OBX, anything could happen. And if these last few weeks were anything to go by, that was certainly the truth.

And then that night, as the Pogues were hanging out in John B's backyard, listening to the crickets as their bonfire died down, JJ knew there wasn't anywhere else in the world he'd rather be.

The OBX was his playground, and _damnit_ , he was gonna fucking _play_.

"You really think it's out there? Like..., no bullshit?" Pope asked into the darkness. John B made a noise of agreement.

"My father thought it was."

JJ could feel Pope nodding. "But do you?"

The thunder that now seemed like a constant – rumbled in the distance. Kie's leg nudged against JJ as they swung in the hammock together, feet to faces.

"After hearing his voice on that tape... I think I do." John B sighed.

Pope huffed. "Only one way to find out."

"Look, we're gonna find it, you know? Even JJ believes," Kie grinned, her toe flicking against JJ's arm. He smirked into the darkness.

"Oh, my God, JJ, do you really believe?" John B faked a gasp.

"Totally," JJ grinned. "Wait. Are we talking about four mil?"

"Four hundred mil." Pope and Kie chimed at the same time. Kie giggled.

"I'm gonna dream about shipwrecks," JJ sighed sleepily. His afternoon had been filled with a heavy-handed smoke after their surf, so to say he was wrecked was an understatement. He looked up at the stars. "Good night, Bird!"

He could practically feel the way John B rolled his eyes at him. JJ reveled in it.

"Good night, bird shit!"

JJ smirked, flipping off his friend.

§

The Pogues kept an eye on the weather for another week after that, before finally finding a day that was scheduled to be calm waters. Then, out on Heyward's boat they went.

JJ, at the helm of the boat, steering them towards victory, he kept his eyes on the horizon as they made their way towards the coordinates that Big John had left them. There was nothing but open blue ocean for miles to see.

"All right, JJ. Pin it here," John B called. JJ grinned, tipping his hat like a Captain. He suddenly wished he had one of those old smoking pipes, an eye patch and a wooden peg leg. Maybe even a parrot on his shoulder - nah, scratch that, it'd shit too much.

"Roger that! X marks the spot." JJ had volunteered to be the driver of the boat, because he'd had more experience levelling a boat on the open water than the rest of them. His dad – back when he'd been sober, or at least, more sober than he was these days – had taken JJ deep sea fishing more times than he could count.

John B lifted the drone behind him and settled it in the water.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen," he called as he watched it sink into the waves. "To going full Kook."

JJ grinned. He couldn't wait. After his marble statue of himself and his koi pond, JJ was also considering a pool with a swim-up bar attached – for no damn reason other than _he could_. He was also tossing up the idea of a moat around the house, and he was gonna catch Bobby the Shark from the marsh to be his personal guard dog.

Pope was in charge of steering the drone, Kie was in charge of the tether, JJ was in charge of steering, and John B was in charge of keeping them in the right spot. It was a flawless system.

"All right, JJ, we're right over it," John B called. "Ten seconds northwest."

JJ nodded, turning the wheel. "Got it! Ten seconds northwest," he repeated.

"One hundred feet," Kie called, marking the number on the boat railing to keep track. Pope suddenly gasped, startling JJ and prompting John B to run over.

"It's nothing," Pope sighed. JJ groaned.

"Don't do that to me, man."

"Come on, bro!" John B rolled his eyes. Kie kept unloading the tether as they all fell back into tense silence. JJ awaited further instruction, his brow furrowing as he noticed the grey clouds rolling in – not exactly turning into the calm day they were hoping for.

"And to quote _The Hobbit_ , 'Down, down, to Goblin Town. Down, down, you go, my lad'," Pope grinned. JJ just rolled his eyes – his friend was beyond weird. And he was the only one in their class that had actually read that book for English instead of just watching the movies.

"Four hundred feet!" Kie called as thunder rolled in the distance. "The tide's turning."

JJ swore under his breath.

"Hey JJ? Ten seconds easy. South-southeast," John B called. JJ nodded, turning the boat around.

"Copy that!"

JJ could hear the monitor in John B's hands beeping. It made him even more tense.

"JJ, 20 seconds mid-speed, all right? South."

"Copy that! Aye, aye." JJ turned the wheel. "Come on," he muttered. When he turned back, he could see the tether line getting closer to the back of the boat and he cursed himself.

"Keep the tether out of the prop!" JJ called. The last thing they needed was for it to get caught, breaking the propeller and stranding them out here. They could die if they weren't careful – especially with clouds like that rolling in.

"I'm trying!" Kie yelled. "Okay, 700 feet!"

JJ swore under his breath as the wind changed, rocking the boat and jolting a large wave against them. "Okay..." he couldn't help letting out. This boat wasn't going to be able to handle the waves if they got any worse.

"JJ, hold it steady!" John B yelled. JJ pursed his lips, turning the wheel enough to keep them in line.

"Okay, 900!"

JJ could barely hear her over the wind in his ears.

"JJ, we'll turtle in this storm, man," Pope called out, like JJ hadn't already been thinking that with each rock of the boat that threatened to take them belly-up.

"920!"

"Crank it north by northwest!" John B called. "Ten seconds!"

"John B, there's too much current!" Kie called out, almost losing her grip on the tether. "We're gonna lose it!"

JJ could practically feel the nerves rolling off his friend – the anguish, the anxiety. He could feel how important this was to him.

"South, southwest, JJ! Hard!" The monitor beeped at them and JJ didn't say anything, doing as he was told. "Half speed. Steady at this bearing, JJ!"

JJ could feel the engine whirring as the boat protested his movements. But, he felt in sync with John B, like he knew his instructions before he was even going to say them – like they were on the same wavelength.

"What do you got, Pope? Come on, man. What do you see?" John B called out. They'd said 900 feet down in the library, JJ's heart was racing.

"Nothin'," Pope swore. "A whole lot of nothin'."

John B grunted in frustration. "You should be right above it, brother."

"Kiara!" Pope called out, frustrated as hell.

"960! 970! 980!" Kie supplied. _Shit_ , JJ thought. _Runnin' out of rope quick_.

And then suddenly – "I'm at the bottom! I'm at the bottom!" Pope called. JJ could feel the excitement thrumming through his veins like he'd shot up on it.

"Okay, steady here, JJ! Steady here. Quarter speed, all right?" John B called, then turned to Pope. "You should be seeing something, man."

"I know, I know!" There was a moment of silence as the two boys watched the drone drift through the water. "Wait, wait... Oh, good God."

"See anything?" JJ asked. He couldn't take the suspense any longer. He adjusted his cap on his head and abandoned the wheel for a second. Kie and the other boys were surrounding the drone video feed.

John B chuckled beneath them before locking gazes with each of his friends.

JJ's eyes were wide and his jaw was dropped.

"It's the Royal Merchant..."

...


	4. S01E04 : SPY GAMES

**S01E04 : SPY GAMES**

JJ had long ago moved back to the steering wheel of the ship. The excitement of finding the wreck of the Royal Merchant had worn off after the first two sweeps through the ship. The thing was practically empty, save for a few very startled fish.

John B let out a frustrated sigh.

"It's not there," Pope muttered. John B ran a hand through his mess of hair.

"Look, just– just pull the drone up." As the thunder rumbled around the boat, the waves were getting rockier. JJ knew they were already risking it enough to have searched for as long as they had. "Shit," John B cursed, turning to the back of the boat.

"Look, we can do another pass. Recharge the battery," Pope tried, optimistic as ever. But it didn't help. Even JJ was feeling downhearted. He could practically feel the gold slipping through his fingers. So much for that koi pond. "We can– we can go back down."

"Guy's, we've been through it three times," JJ called out, turning the wheel to keep the boat from flipping in the growing waves. "There's nothing there."

"Shut up!" Kie yelled. JJ scowled out into the open ocean.

"What? It's true!"

"The gold could be buried," Kie cried. "We don't know."

"If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B sighed, turning back to his friends. "Somebody beat us to it."

JJ rolled his eyes as the others began hoisting the drone back up from its depths. The thunder rumbled around them and JJ could see the beginning of lightning in the distance as the wind whipped at his hair.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Or it was never there..."

The mood of the group was somber as they headed back to shore. John B practically didn't say a word to the others when they disembarked and separated. The rest of the afternoon would feel like an eternity as they all wallowed in their disappointment.

Needing to blow off some steam, JJ went home for the first time in a while. The place was a crap heap like every other home on The Cut. And it didn't even feel like a home to JJ – at least, not anymore. Not in years.

This was just a place that he kept clothes and occasionally crashed at. The Chateau was more like a home than this place. JJ sighed, dumping his backpack on the porch and picking out three things – his smoke, his trusty lighter, and his gun.

No one was home, so there wouldn't be anyone to interrupt him.

He found a pair of worker's earmuffs before searching his room for an old teddy bear. Taking it outside and sitting it up on a post, JJ took a few steps back and raised the gun.

"What was that?" JJ talked to himself, eyes on Big Ted as he shot the gun. The bullet went straight through the thing's left ear. "That's what I thought, man." Another gunshot.

"JJ!"

JJ saw someone approaching from his right and he lowered the gun. Maybe JJ wouldn't be spending his afternoon alone, after all. Pope looked dead frightened as he walked up to his friend.

"JJ! They know."

"What?" JJ asked, taking his earmuffs off. Pope widened his eyes.

"They _know_."

JJ sighed, rolling his eyes and walking over to his friend.

"All right, chill, bro. All right? They don't know shit," he shook his head. Pope was breathing hard out of his nose.

"Topper knows I sunk his boat."

JJ cocked a brow at his friend, taking a seat on a wayward log. "How do you know they know?"

Pope began pacing in front of him, his hands anxiously waving about his head.

"Because Rafe and Topper posted outside of Heyward's and mad dogged me!"

"Will you calm down and get a grip, man? They don't know shit." JJ didn't like the look in his friend's eye. Rafe and Topper shouldn't have scared him so much. Then again, this was Pope they were talking about. JJ could handle two assholes like Rafe Cameron and Topper Thornton. Pope...? Not so much.

"They have cameras. They could've seen me," his friend stressed. JJ rolled his eyes.

"There was no power, Pope. How could they have seen you?"

"It's Figure Eight. They got generators!" Pope seethed. "They don't give scholarships to kids who vengefully sink boats. It's not a good look on my transcript."

JJ had had enough of this shit. He stood up in front of Pope, making him stop. "Enough with the regret, bro!" Those Kooks deserved everything they had coming to them. A sunken boat had nothing on the shit they they'd put the Pogues through. "They caved your face in! They hit us, we hit them. It's the law of the jungle."

Pope gave JJ a long look, but JJ wasn't done.

"Now, if any Kooks come up to you and ask if you had anything to do with it, you walk up to 'em, look 'em right in the eye, and...?" he looked at Pope pointedly. The kid took a moment to take a deep breath in before pursing his lips.

"Deny the living shit out of it."

JJ grinned. "That's right! Deny, deny, deny..." Pope didn't look convinced, so JJ drove the last nail in the coffin. "Just for safety, we don't go anywhere without protection. Right?"

He pointed down at the gun he'd rested on a tree stump at their feet. Pope looked down at the weapon, inhaling sharply before nodding once. JJ grinned. No Kook was gonna mess with him and his friends.

If they thought they could, they had another thing comin'.

JJ would blow a cap in their ass if their tried.

§

JJ kept his eyes on the grass in front of them as he, Pope, and Kie walked over the green to find a place to lay out their picnic blanket. Kie had him carrying the cooler, which he was fine with. They wanted to find a spot close enough to the screen to not have their vision blocked by anyone else, but not so close they'd be craning their necks all night.

After Pope had been freaking out earlier, this seemed like the perfect place to be. There were families around, so no one could pull a fast one on them.

"I'm so glad that they're still doing this. Keep calm. Carry on," Kie smiled. JJ fixed his old fishing cap backwards on his mess of hair as he heard the overhead announcement.

_"Welcome to the summer movie series..."_

"Back to OBX life. You know?" Kie sighed happily. "Aren't you guys glad I made you come?"

JJ wasn't so sure. After everything with Aggie, and now their excitement over the Royal Merchant – this felt way too normal and boring for JJ to even comprehend.

"Ecstatic.," Pope grunted from between them. JJ cleared his throat as they found a spot.

"My couch was pretty comfy, I'll be honest," he muttered. Because it had been – or at least until his dad had shown up back home from whatever crack house he'd been visiting. As they started setting up their spot, Kie moved away to go and buy food from the local vendor.

"We're out of the green zone, man," Pope whispered to him as they sat down, JJ on top of his trusty cooler.

"Dude, _tranquilo_ , okay?" he muttered, trying to keep a hush on his friend. Pope needed to chill. His antsy energy was going to make JJ on edge all night if he kept it up.

Pope worried his teeth between his lips. "We're in the middle of Kooklandia. This is the last place I wanted to be."

"Shut _up_ , Pope."

JJ looked around the people that were here to watch the movie at the open air cinema. They were going to have to try and ignore the sound of the generator that was keeping it up and running.

His eyes widened slightly when his gaze fell on Katie Daykin, quietly drinking a can of _La Croix_ as she sat next to her dad – JJ's high school history teacher. As if she could feel his eyes on her, she turned slightly and they locked gazes. She caught him staring and gave him a sly smirk. JJ grinned, unashamed.

Then – for a reason unknown to him – he bit his lip and averted his gaze, a smile light in his eyes. He looked at his shoes. He didn't want to interrupt her time with her family.

And then Kie made an appearance back with the two boys.

"Just saw Rafe, and he said, and I quote, _'Tell your boy that we know what he did.'_ What is that?" Kie handed over a Pepsi to each of her friends as she spoke.

JJ's eyes widened, looking over Kie's shoulder.

Kie and Rafe had history – sordid enough that Kie had barely spoken a word to or about Sarah Cameron's older brother since she'd stopped being friends with the Kooks. JJ and the other Pogues didn't know the details, but whatever had happened between them, Rafe hadn't wanted to talk to Kie about it in the years since either.

The fact that he was stepping up to her now and making conversation had JJ all kinds of antsy – like, _Pope_ -level antsy.

"Um... Where is he?" he asked, successfully keeping the waver from his voice. Kie rose an eyebrow at him but nodded over her shoulder.

"Right there."

Pope turned in his seat faster than a fish that was trying to squirm off a hook. JJ's eyes widened as they saw Rafe, Topper and Kelce standing in their pompous Kook clothes, eyes menacingly on the Pogues.

"Great, the whole death squad!" Pope moaned. JJ frowned, turning Pope's head to stare back at the cinema screen in front of them.

"Don't stare, bro," he hissed. _Was Pope stupid?_ Did he want to be beaten up by those three idiots? "Just warning you, bro. If they corner me, I'm coming out swinging, okay? Slice and dicin'. I'm on edge right now."

Pope looked up at JJ, nodding.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

"And, if that doesn't work, I got this right here," he said, holding up his canvas bag. Pope would know what was inside it.

"Yeah, yeah. So, we just gotta stay in the group. They can't get us in the group."

JJ nodded. "Like a school of fish."

"Stay in the school. Can't leave the school."

JJ thought Pope sounded deranged, but his analogy wasn't totally off.

Then JJ could feel Kie's condescending eyes on him. She had been listening to their odd conversation in confused silence, growing angrier by the second.

"I'm sorry, JJ... Please tell me that you did not bring a gun here. –JJ, there are _kids_ –".

"No!" JJ interrupted, fully lying. "Kie, I didn't bring the gun. Everything's fine, okay?"

Kie rolled her eyes at him, unimpressed. "Wow, thank you. That's really convincing. I love that, JJ."

 _"Welcome to the summer movie series..."_ the announcement repeated. _"Where all proceeds–"_

"Founding principle, you guys," Kie snarled, putting down her drink. "No secrets amongst Pogues. _What_ is Rafe talking about?"

JJ bit his lip, looking away. Kie was pissed, that was for sure. And a pissed Kie was a Kie that JJ didn't like seeing. It took quite a bit to rile up the chilled out girl, but one thing she hated was secrets being kept from her – she thought it was disloyal. She wasn't totally wrong...

"Kie," Pope tried, levelling her with his wife eyed gaze - the kid looked rightfully terrified. "It might go down tonight..."

JJ rolled his eyes. Kie just gave the boys an exasperated look.

"What does that mean? _'Might go down tonight.'_ What did y'all do?" she demanded.

JJ's hand was gripping at Pope's shoulder. "Deny, deny, deny," he whispered. This was the most important thing. Kie couldn't be let in on the secret. They couldn't risk getting her in trouble, too.

Kie rolled her eyes at the two boys, pissed. She looked away from them, fiddling with something in her bag as she ignored them – agitated. Pope let out a sigh, disappointed in himself for letting her down and not telling her their secret.

JJ didn't care about that right now. It was too important to keep her out of it, like Pope had asked him to. No – _begged_ him to.

His eyes wandered around the green, settling for a moment on Katie as she laughed with her father about something. He liked that someone was having a good time. He'd prefer that over the awkward tension that the three Pogues had found themselves in.

JJ watched Katie Daykin for a moment longer, mesmerized by the way her cheeks were taut from her wide smile and laughter. For a moment, JJ was enamored with her, in the way that wayward sailors were enamored by the voices of Sirens out at sea. They sung to the sailors, pleasing their ears and their hearts, making the sailors crazed with obsession.

JJ remembered discussions of Sirens from Katie's father's history lectures. Originally from Greek myth, Sirens were half-bird, half-beautiful-maidens – like Harpies – daughters of a Muse and Achelous, a river god. Mr. Daykin had discussed them as they'd appeared within Homer's _Odyssey_ – among their readings for that semester (one that JJ had definitely not had the time to read – he'd spent most of that class chasing big swell surf anyway, he was even surprised he could recall this much).

The Sirens were enchantresses moored on the islands of _Sirenum scopuli_ surrounded by heaps and piles of bones – with the flesh of the victims still rotting off the dead bodies. In the _Odyssey_ , they were fated to die if anyone should survive their singing. To hear their song was to know all that they knew – their hidden knowledge was so innate that they could tell you more about yourself than a prophecy from a Seer, or a dream sent from a God.

Modern interpretations of the Sirens, however, were rooted in the idea that they descended from seductive and enchanting merpeople – voluptuous mermaids and beautiful sea nymphs – and would drag sailors to their depths to drown after hearing their singing. As the son of a fisherman, JJ personally much preferred the mermaid depiction than a half-bird-woman. If he was going to die from being lured to his death, may as well be from a sexy half-naked mermaid.

Katie was almost like a Siren, he thought. Not ugly or deformed like myth depicted the creatures to be, as their attractive and thrilling voices were used to lure sailors to their deaths. But he was definitely enchanted by the girl for reasons still unknown to him.

He thought maybe if he concentrated hard enough, maybe he could hear her laughter across the crowd. Maybe he could let it drown out the noise of the crowd itself and the old film.

Katie was more like a Siren in the way that she had invaded his brain – encapsulated his thoughts. JJ was more curious about the curious girl than he had ever been about anyone before, even more than he had been about Kiara. And as the film started and JJ and his friends were thrust into tense silence, he found himself watching her more than he watched the old black and white film, his eyes flicking between them like they couldn't decide which desired his focus more.

He liked watching her be encompassed by the film. He liked watching her reactions. He liked watching her. He couldn't help it – like he was compelled to watch her. Something in her drew him to her. Just like a Siren...

An hour later, and halfway through the movie, JJ was barely paying attention, but Pope's insistent tugging on his pant leg was drawing JJ's focus.

"What?" he whispered, locking eyes with his friend. Pope grimaced.

"Gotta take a piss."

JJ mentally groaned. "Hold it," he ground out. This was _so_ not the right time for this. Pope sighed.

"I can't hold it. I drank too much soda." _Rookie mistake – he would never hold up in prison_ , JJ thought wryly.

Then he frowned, looking around. He shook his head at his friend. There was nowhere for them to go without Rafe and his little gang spying on them.

"It's too exposed. They'll totally see us," JJ shook his head. Pope gave him a pleading look.

"Dude, I _really_ gotta go." He looked over his shoulder before cursing under his breath. "They're blocking the bathrooms."

JJ looked over to the bathrooms, only to see Rafe, Topper and Kelce standing with arms crossed at the door, like they were the bouncers of the worst nightclub ever, keeping out anyone who wanted to take a leak.

Then he sighed, looking around. Finally he nodded to himself. "Come here. I know where."

Pope nodded gratefully as the two boys moved to get up.

"Hey, where y'all going?" Kie hissed. JJ locked eyes with her for a second, before shrugging.

"We gotta wring it out."

Kie cringed. "What? Are you gonna hold it for each other?" JJ just smirked down at her, to which she scoffed at – disgusted. That made JJ chuckle.

JJ led the two boys around to the side of the screen, kind of concealed by it to any prying eyes. It was as good as they were going to get. And, maybe he should have thanked Pope, because now that he was up, JJ didn't see the harm in taking a piss, too.

"This feels better than a blowjob," Pope said, sighing gratefully. JJ rolled his eyes with a smirk.

"Like you know how that feels."

Pope nodded for a moment. "This feels better than what I _imagine_ a blowjob would feel like."

JJ chuckled, zipping himself up and turning around to give his friend privacy as he finished up.

"You bring the peacemaker?" Pope asked. JJ's eyes widened.

"Oh, shit, I forgot it."

Pope looked at him with wide eyes.

"You forgot it? Dude, you had one job. That's all I asked you to do, man."

"Hurry up! Hurry up!" JJ nodded, waving him off urgently. "I know. Let's go back."

The two boys turned to round the screen again and go back to Kie, but suddenly Rafe appeared in front of them.

"What's up, Pogues?"

JJ cursed himself. "What's up, Rafe?"

"How you guys doin' tonight?" Rafe backed them up behind the screen, hidden from the crowd. JJ didn't like the way he was advancing on them.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Rafe didn't laugh. "I wanna talk."

"Hey, hey," a voice called from behind. JJ looked over his shoulder to see Topper and Kelce approaching.

"Just chill out, Topper," Pope said, worried as hell.

"Yeah, that was some nice work you did on my boat," Topper sneered as he and his friends circled JJ and Pope.

"I uhh– I don't know what you mean."

"Sure," Topper rolled his eyes. "Not so burly without a gun now, are you?" Topper got up in JJ's face and JJ scowled at the other boy.

"Take one more step, and I'll rip that prepubescent face off."

Topper sneered at him before turning on Pope. "Do you feel good, stealing shit? Is your mom proud of you? Is your dad?"

Before JJ could do anything, his friend snapped. His head raced forward, slamming into Topper's, making the other boy swear loudly.

JJ grinned. "Now, attaboy! Attaboy! With your fist, like this, okay?" JJ moved to swing at Topper but then Rafe grabbed him.

Before he could really tell what was happening, Rafe and Kelce were on him while Topper dealt with Pope. There was no way they were going to win against these 'roid-freak Kooks. Not without help.

JJ grunted as Kelce slammed a fist into his midsection as Rafe held him back. JJ got a few good hits in, but his head was pounding when Kelce got a good fist in across his face. His eyes rocked in their sockets like blind sharks.

"Let go of him, Topper! Fascist asshole!" he heard Kie yell. Kelce grabbed JJ by the roots of his hair, then kicked him in the stomach, making him double over with a gasp. Feeling the wind being kicked out of him, JJ was fighting for breath.

"Hey, listen, Pope. All you gotta do..." Topper laughed. "...is accept personal responsibility."

"Screw you, Kook!" Pope yelled. JJ could barely hear him, but he was damn proud of his friend for standing up for himself.

"Topper stop," Kie yelled, then squeaked when Rafe hauled her off Topper, throwing her – JJ's – bag to the side. "Oh, let go of me, Rafe!"

"Stay out of this, Kiara!" he yelled.

"Kie! You okay?" Pope managed to ask, but then Topped pulled him into a headlock, choking him.

"Come on, man. Just admit it! Admit you did it, bitch!" Topper yelled as Kie screamed for him to stop.

JJ groaned as Rafe and Kelce began raining down a fire of hell on his body. Everything hurt, but all he could think about was Topper's arm crushing Pope's windpipe.

His friend couldn't fucking breathe.

"You don't mess with me, Pogue!" Topper yelled. "You hear me? I'm gonna give you one chance."

From his blurry vision, JJ could see Kie rifling through his bag, finding the gun and casting it to the side after a moment of hesitation.

"One chance, Pope! One chance. Come on! One! Got anything you wanna say, bro? Come on! Got something you wanna say?" Topper kept yelling. Pope was scrambling in the other boy's grip, struggling for breath.

Then Kie found JJ's lighter, and JJ could see her plan in her head probably before even she did. It was the rascal side of him, probably – the side of him always on the lookout for Plan B.

"Finish him off, Top!" Rafe yelled, then landed another punch to JJ's gut.

Then Kie scrambled to the corner of the screen, flicking the lighter open and letting the flames dance across the canvas. The crowd behind started to scream 'fire!'.

"Get off of him!" Kie yelled. "Kelce, let go of JJ!"

Feeling the boys let them go and flee the scene, JJ was left to put his head between his knees trying to catch his breath. He let himself look up for a moment at the screen on fire, seeing Kie's damage.

Through the hole in the canvas, JJ somehow locked eyes with Katie as she stared up at the fire with a look in her eyes that JJ was too unfocused to analyze.

"You're a freakin' idiot," Pope gasped out as Kie helped him up, laying his arm across her shoulders to steady him. JJ hauled himself to stand up straight, his eyes still on Katie across the green.

"I saved your ass. Come on," Kie rolled her eyes. His friends started to walk away, but JJ couldn't drop Katie's gaze as the crowd around them scrambled for purchase on the dewy grass, trying to get away fast enough before the flames could spread.

His Siren looked over at him, her eyebrows creased, half with worry, half with something he couldn't put his finger on. Her arms were crossed over her chest loosely as she stood there. JJ watched as her father pulled at her arm once to get her to leave with the crowd. Her lips parted as she kept her eyes locked with JJ, and then she bit her lip and turned around, following him.

His Siren left. And JJ was left to try and catch his breath as Kie berated him for lying about bringing the gun – among all the other shit that had gone down. She couldn't give him a break? His eyebrow was split in two, he could feel the blood dripping down into his eyes, and she wanted to yell at him right now? His lip was throbbing too and he could taste the blood on the top of his tongue.

 _Figures_...

§

The next morning, JJ, Pope, and Kie were gathered at Heyward's. John B had been MIA since yesterday. They stood in the bait-shop/giftshop portion of the building, conversing as Pope manned the cash register.

"Don't let it get in your head. Three of them and two of us. That's typical Kook shit right there," JJ muttered, fiddling with the display of plastic fish bait next to the register. He was keeping himself distracted, because a certain someone was walking through the shelves and displays, picking up things at random and JJ was trying to ignore her. He was trying not to let himself be enamored with her again like he had been at the cinema last night.

"Hell, yeah," Kie agreed absentmindedly.

JJ grinned. "What was your thought process, using your _head_?" Pope smirked, chuckling.

"I don't know, man. I just kind of acted off instinct."

 _Yeah_ , JJ thought, _instinct that'll leave you with an egg sized lump on your cranium_.

"I was a cornered animal," Pope laughed to himself, shrugging. But then, the mood in the shop plummeted when Heyward walked in. JJ looked up to see him followed by JJ's best friend in the whole wide world – Deputy Shoupe.

"Hey, Pope, someone here to see you," Heyward said with wary eyes. Cops were treated with enough respect around The Cut, but that didn't mean the Pogues had to like them. The shifting mood in the room was enough evidence of that.

"Uhh... Evening, Officer," Pope stammered.

JJ's inner monologue was having an embolism. _Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shi–_

Shoupe just looked at him. "I have an arrest warrant for felony destruction of property."

_–Shittttttt!!!_

Heyward's eyebrows rose to his hairline. "What?"

"Keep your hands on the counter where I can see 'em," Shoupe warned, advancing towards Pope. "Young lady, out of my way," he said, when Kie tried to step in front of him. Pope's jaw was on the floor and JJ was worrying his lip between his teeth, unsure of what the hell he was supposed to do.

The two boys locked eyes and all JJ could think to do was mouth one last message to his friend, his eyes hard. _Deny, deny, deny_.

Those Kooks didn't have shit on them.

"Whoa. Shoupe, what'd he do?" Heyward tried to intervene as Shoupe placed a set of handcuffs around Pope's wrists, his arms behind his back. JJ tore his cap from his hair.

"Look at the warrant."

"Sorry, you're arresting him?" Kie demanded.

"You're just arresting my boy? Shoupe, are you listening?"

Shoupe ignored Kie's cries for him to stop. She still didn't know what they'd done.

"...anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney."

"Yo, how much did they pay you, man? How much did they pay you?" JJ cut in as Shoupe started leading Pope out of the building and onto the dock outside where the police SUV was parked. There was no way those asshole Kooks weren't behind this.

JJ swore at himself but he couldn't let them go through with this. Pope looked like he was about to pass out from shock and despair.

He hadn't said anything since the cuffs had gone on. JJ couldn't bear to let his friend go down for this – he couldn't let Pope have everything ruined just because Rafe and Topper were assholes.

"It wasn't him!" JJ yelled out, effectively stopping the group that had exited the shop. Shoupe looked to JJ for an explanation. The outraged group around him was silent. "It was me. He tried to talk me out of it, but I was mad because he'd just been beaten up."

JJ took two steps forward, closer to the police cruiser and his inevitable fate. "I was so sick of those assholes from Figure Eight that I lost my shit." He turned to Pope, eyeing him and begging the boy to wordlessly understand his plan. "I can't let you take the blame for somethin' I did. You've got too much to lose."

"JJ, what are you doing?" Pope pleaded.

"I'm tellin' the truth!" JJ lamented. "For once in my goddamn life, I'm gonna tell the truth. I took his old man's boat, too." JJ shook his head, trying to show remorse. He ignored Heyward's 'what the hell?', instead shifting his gaze between Pope and Shoupe as one stared at him with pleading eyes and the other stared at him like he'd always known this day would come.

JJ kept his eyes on them, ignoring the one he knew was burning into his back. He couldn't look at her right now. He didn't want to have to face the confusion on her face. He didn't want to mar that image.

"JJ, come on," Pope tried but JJ just shook his head, cutting him off with a yell.

"Just shut up, Pope! Just shut up..." He turned to Shoupe, sighing dejectedly. "He's a good kid... and you know where I'm from."

Shoupe sighed, pursing his lips. JJ hadn't wanted to have to use that clincher, but it seemed like he may as well. It would only further sell his case.

"Yeah," Shoupe nodded, well aware of JJ's family tree.

"This was all me," JJ shrugged, his eyes hard.

"That's the whole truth?"

JJ nodded. "Whole truth, swear to God."

Shoupe rolled his eyes. "I know what _you_ think, damn it, I'm asking Pope here."

JJ locked gazes with Pope for a moment. _Deny, deny, deny_ he willed Pope to understand – to see it in his eyes. After a moment of grieved silence, Pope nodded once – defeated.

"Yeah, that about covers it."

Shoupe eventually nodded, uncuffing him and instead locking JJ's wrists together behind his back. As he was helping JJ into the back of the car, JJ locked eyes with Katie like he hadn't wanted to.

Shoupe closed the car door between them, but his eyes were still on hers. The pull between her brows, her confused brown eyes – it was all too much for JJ. He hadn't wanted her to see this side of him.

Hell, she didn't deserve that.

And she deserved more than someone like JJ pining after her, that was for sure.

His gaze lingered on hers for a moment before he tore it away, pained as he licked the inside of his lips and stared down at his feet.

There was no way she wouldn't put two and two together about this. She'd been at the cinema, and she'd seen the fire. She'd assume that the 'property damage' was the burnt up canvas. She'd know that JJ and Pope had beef with those Kooks.

And she'd never talk to him again, because why should she concern herself with someone who can't get past petty drama?

His thoughts circled her as Shoupe drove him to the station. When he led JJ inside, he uncuffed him and led him into a cell – alone.

"In there, tough guy," Shoupe smirked, before he slammed the cell door shut. JJ had always thought he was destined to wind up here, but didn't think it'd be so soon in his life.

When JJ was left alone in his cell, his head fell into his hands as the panic started to build in his chest. _Shit_. He'd been arrested. _Shit_. They were gonna call his dad. _Shit_. What would Katie think of him now?

And yet, those thoughts were overrun with the feeling of pride coursing through him, because he'd protected his friend like he'd promised he would. Pope wouldn't have been able to handle anything that was going to come from this, but JJ?

JJ would face that shit head on. JJ could handle it.

_He had to._

And so, he felt a satisfied smirk lift to his lips as he stared into the silence of the empty jail cell.

...


	5. S01E05 : MIDSUMMERS

**S01E05 : MIDSUMMERS**   
_(aka my favorite episode)_

When JJ was corralled into Sheriff Peterkin's office by a less-than-happy Deputy, he decided to make himself comfortable as he waited for her to make her – no doubt dramatic – entrance. He rested his arms behind his head casually, leaning back against the chairs amongst the bustle of the department.

There was a phone ringing somewhere that someone refused to answer. JJ wondered briefly whether it was actually not a phone, but was a sound made to loop through the speakers to annoy the shit out of anyone who'd been arrested, pissing them off enough to admit to whatever they'd been brought in for.

By the time Peterkin came slamming through the door, he'd counted thirty-seven rings of the phone. Not enough to make him confess, but enough to begin getting on his nerves.

Peterkin steeled him with a hard glare but JJ wouldn't give in so easily. He looked up at her lazily.

"You're like a little rock in my shoe," she sneered. "I shake my foot, I think I've gotten it out, then dang, there it is again."

JJ shrugged. "Maybe watch where you're steppin'," he offered, raising his eyebrows a little. Peterkin met the action with her own, as if she were challenging him.

"That little rock on the back of my heel makes me want to crush it."

"Okay."

Peterkin sat down at the desk in front of him, flipping open a case file filled with all the loose papers – probably one documenting each crime JJ had ever committed. See? He knew Shoupe had a crush on him – why else would anyone be so diligent? _Hahaha_.

"Unlawful discharge of a firearm," Peterkin said. "Trespass on protected habitat. Felony destruction of property. All in the last two weeks. You're on a roll, chief."

JJ crossed his arms over his chest, satisfied. Hell yeah he was on a roll, he was trying to get filthy rich here. And to get _filthy_ rich, it was inevitable for ones hands not to get a little dirty...

"If you think I'm gonna rat anybody out, you got the wrong idea." _Deny, deny, deny_.

Peterkin just rolled her eyes. "I know your little teen brain doesn't like to think ahead, but I want you to come with me to uncharted territory. _The_ _future_... How you gonna feel six months from now, sittin' in juvenile prison in Wadesboro?"

JJ watched her carefully. She thought some metaphorical shit would make JJ talk? Was this her first time trying to get a confession out of someone like him? Sure looked like it... Or was she trying to play good-confused cop?

Either way, JJ wasn't budging. He huffed, biting the inside of his split lip for just a moment, averting his gaze.

"You know these two?" Peterkin asked, placing two mugshots in front of JJ. He did know them. They were the square groupers who'd beat up Ms. Lana and wrecked the Chateau. JJ kept his mouth shut, his eyes focused on the photos. Peterkin, obviously unhappy with his silence, got up from her seat to walk closer to JJ. "My question was, do you know these two?"

JJ sighed. He wasn't getting out of this. He thought he'd been arrested for sinking Topper's boat, but now that he was being questioned about these guys, well... JJ weighed up the pros and cons.

Maybe if he actually said something, these guys would disappear off the Pogues' tails.

"They..." he took a deep breath. "They broke into John B's house, and... then chased us through the marsh. Other than that, I have no idea."

JJ looked up at Peterkin. He'd basically told the truth – just left out the part where the guys were basically scorned Merchanteers. Peterkin didn't seem impressed enough with his answer.

"Here's a more recent photo," she said, before turning the case file towards him, opened up on a plethora of horrifying photographs. JJ's eyes widened as he stared down at the pictures. There were anatomical parts of the body in there that he didn't even recognize.

"Somebody gaffed them, then used them for chum," Peterkin said, her voice hard – almost accusing. "Whatcha think, _bull shark_?"

JJ couldn't help the way bile rose in his throat as he looked down at the two – now _dead_ – square groupers. They were ripped open and covered in teeth marks. JJ tried to hide the way his throat constricted with the urge to retch.

He'd never been exposed to something like this before. And dead bodies were more Pope's thing than they were JJ's. This kind of shit was harrowing.

For once, JJ was glad that the photos were in black and white. If they'd been in color, JJ was sure that Peterkin would be standing in a pile of his vomit right about then.

"Here's the bad news, chief," Peterkin went on, her hand on the back of his chair, making him feel extremely claustrophobic. "Whoever killed these two men is still out there, and I got reason to believe their next target is a friend of yours... _John B_. You kids don't think you're the only ones after the Royal Merchant now, do you? ...And, yeah. I know about _that_ , too."

Then her hand was gone from his chair and she was walking back around the other side of the desk to face him. JJ took a deep breath, saving himself from worrying his split lip between his teeth and making it bleed even more.

 _Shit_. If what she was saying was true, the Pogues were in some seriously _deep_ shit. And no one had seen or heard from John B in hours. None of the Pogues knew where the hell he was. Could he have been lynched already?

"Okay, Sheriff Peterkin, I can promise you he's not on it anymore–" JJ tried, but Peterkin cut him off.

"So you say. I'm just tryin' to keep him safe," she said, her eyes unblinkingly serious. "I want you to tell your friend John B to come in and talk to me, and let's see if we can keep you out of Wadesboro."

Her words were final. She packed up the case file and slammed the door behind her on her way out, leaving JJ to sit and dwell on her words. And those photos...

JJ needed the bathroom. He could feel his stomach threatening to empty right there on the table.

§

Katie ran a hand through her curly hair as she entered the police station. After seeing JJ be arrested that morning, she'd been more than happy to take her father's turn at picking up her mother from her shift. The sun was high in the sky – midday – and her mom had worked the night shift.

To say Katie was dying to know the real reason that JJ had been arrested was an understatement. And seeing as her family only owned the one car, she and her father often took turns to pick up her mother from work.

"Hi, Alice," she smiled as she opened the front door, smiling at the receptionist deputy who often had a spare candy bar from the vending machine for her.

"Hey, kiddo," she grinned back at me. "Your mom is just talking with the Sheriff but she'll be done in about ten minutes."

Katie nodded. "Too easy, well, I'll just take my normal spot, then," she said, motioning to the waiting room seat by the door, the one next to the water cooler. It was Katie's favorite spot in the station to wait, because it was close enough to reception that Katie could eavesdrop on the conversations there.

It wasn't like Alice was a quiet woman, anyway.

Plus, that waiting room seat had a great view down the hallway to the Sheriff's office, too.

She picked up an old magazine from literally years ago and decided to 'catch up' on the 'latest' Brangelina gossip. He was still a drunk. She still wanted custody.

That was, until she was distracted by the man bustling through the front door. He stank of alcohol and old seawater.

"I'm here to pick-up," he grumbled at Alice. She gave him a long disapproving look but nodded. She didn't ask for his name, so Katie knew they must have known each other already. He seemed to know his way around...

Alice pressed the buzzer that unlocked the room behind reception. JJ Maybank walked out, looking decidedly less disheveled than she had thought he would for someone who'd spent the majority of the day in a police holding cell.

He didn't see her, but she raised her magazine a little higher to cover her face anyway. She didn't know exactly why she was hiding from him. Probably more to do with not wanting to seem like she was stalking him, or eavesdropping like she so obviously was.

"You're his guardian?" Alice muttered. The man sighed, nodding.

"Sorry to say, I'm his father."

Katie's eyebrows raised in surprise. She didn't know why she was. JJ was still a minor, so he had to have a parent or guardian legally sign his release papers, but still...

"Well, hearing will be in two weeks," Alice said. "If you fail to show up, you will forfeit your bail. The restitution will be based on the average of three outside estimates of the cost of the damaged article."

"Restitution?" The man asked, annoyance clear in his tone. Katie bit her lip as she listened to the conversation. _His name, his name, surely Katie could remember JJ's father's name...?_

"Pay for what he broke. It's part of the plea," Alice supplied. Katie heard the rustle of papers as they were pushed across the desk. "Yeah, and... sign right here, please."

 _Luke!_ Katie's brain yelled at her. _His name is Luke!_ The angry man pushed his signature across the page, letting the pen clatter to the floor in front of the desk and not bothering to pick it up. Alice just pursed her lips.

"Let's go," Luke muttered to his son. "Go now!"

Then he was marching JJ out the front door as Alice looked on silently, her lips pursed. JJ had flinched at the raise of his father's voice. Katie, quietly, scrambled from her seat to pick up the pen and place it on Alice's desk for her.

"I, uhh.... I forgot my drink in the car," Katie said lamely, before walking out the front door before Alice could reply. Looking down the street, Katie could see Luke and JJ walking away, towards a car.

For someone who stank of alcohol, Katie noted that the man definitely shouldn't have been behind the wheel. He was loud and frustrated enough that Katie could still hear him.

"I wonder what restitution's gonna be on a 2019 Malibu," Luke cursed. JJ walked beside him with his head slung low and his fists in his pockets. _A boat? Had JJ stolen it or something?_

"I'll pay it off. All of it. I swear, Dad." Katie had never heard JJ sound so defeated. The boy was usually bursting with sarcasm and undeniable energy, with that crooked smile flirting at his lips.

 _You're not seriously thinking about that right now, are you?_ Katie wondered to herself, shaking it off.

" _Shit_. 30K? When're you gonna clear that, big guy, when all you do is smoke weed and hang out on the south side? Huh?" Luke shook his head, pissed. "Get in the car. Let's go."

Katie watched the boy hesitate for a moment, before he leant towards the vehicle and opened the door, slamming it behind him. Katie, of course, didn't hear what happened next, but her eyes widened when she saw the car start to shake from side to side.

Looking through the dingy back window, she could make out some movement from the driver's seat towards the passenger, but Katie couldn't be sure what was happening.

It shook side to side over and over and over – repeatedly. Time seemed to stop as Katie's jaw dropped. Her brows furrowed. She wanted to take a step closer and find out what the hell was going on.

She swore she'd heard muffled yelling coming from the car.

"You ready to go, honey?"

Katie turned around to see her mother standing in the doorway of the station. Biting her lip and casting a short glance towards where Luke and JJ had disappeared into the car, she watched it pull away from the curb and drive off.

She tore her gaze back to her mother, trying to hide the worry in her eyes over what the hell had just happened between father and son.

"Sure, Mom," she muttered, before following the woman to their car and letting her drive them home in silence. Katie wanted to ask about JJ and what he'd been arrested for. But her mind was on that shaking car, and the words died on her lips.

§

JJ's head pounded as the rock music filtered beneath his closed bedroom door. He was used to this shit – practically routine at this house these days – but that didn't mean the hurt lessened with each time his father rose his voice.

Especially as it was always directed at JJ. He couldn't do anything right, JJ thought that sinking Topper's boat might actually be the straw that might literally have broken the camel's back this time.

"How you gonna get that money back?" Luke yelled from behind the door. "By sittin' around doin' nothin'?"

JJ's hands were over his ears as he paced his bedroom. Everything was too loud, too much. He could feel the pounding of the music in his head and through his feet and it was all too much. His head was still throbbing from the absolute beating he'd taken in the car outside the police station.

JJ was fairly sure that his father had re-split his lip, if the spray of blood on the inside window was anything to go off. He panted heavy breaths to try and keep himself in control.

"I'm gonna tell you right now, you are a worthless piece of shit!" his father yelled. JJ snapped, slamming his hands against his door.

"Shut up!"

"Your mama knew," Luke taunted, making JJ see red. _Low fucking blow._

"Shut up!"

"You tell me where you're gonna get 30 grand now! Get your ass in here!"

JJ grunted and kicked clothes and bedding around his room in anger, pelting things at the walls and windows. He couldn't unlock that door. He knew that if he did, things would escalate far too quickly. And in his good sense, he'd bought a cheap lock for his door so that his dad couldn't get into there with him either.

It took hours, but the ringing in JJ's ears finally let up as Luke passed out in a drunken stupor. JJ was able to get up from where he sat in the corner of his room with his hands pressed so hard into his ears that he was afraid he'd crush his own skull. Taking the backpack that he'd gathered in a rush in his anger to distract himself whilst his father had yelled and pounded on the door and the walls, JJ made his decision to move.

Resolutely – determined – and with shaky breaths, JJ pulled himself up and walked towards the door. Pulling it open slowly, allowing the creak to filter through the air, JJ crept out into the living room.

He could feel his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides as he took each step forward, his eyes never moving away from the man who singlehandedly haunted his son's nightmares.

Grimacing as he laid eyes on his father, he watched the man as he snored away on the torn-up couch. There were cans and bottles – some broken – and dried up cigarettes and even an eight ball on the table next to his father. JJ felt a tear roll down his cheek as he grit his teeth and took another step closer to him.

Then, reaching into the backpack in the silence of the afternoon, JJ pulled out the one thing he'd never considered using on his father until that very day. The gun felt heavier in his hands than it had any other time – for the first time, heavy with real consequence.

His finger could so easily slip before he was ready. Could JJ handle the ramifications of that?

Probably not. There would have been people who thought there was some part of Luke Maybank that could have been saved, and that JJ would have been the monstrous son who took it out on his helpless father.

If he pulled that trigger, there would be no one to defend the years of torture that his father had put him through – no one to see the justification in the one defining act. Instead, they'd see the opposite – Luke the Saint and his deranged, murderous son who should have absolutely known better.

And yet, with those thoughts circling his brain, JJ didn't lower the weapon. Instead, he had two hands gripping at the firearm as if it were his lifeline.

His teeth felt like they might break in his mouth if he were to grit them any harder.

JJ cocked the gun.

His bottom lip wobbled uncontrollably as he felt his face twist into an amalgamated image of sixteen year's worth of pain. A collage of the abuse he'd suffered. Mental, verbal, physical...

Luke didn't seem to know the difference.

JJ's finger hovered over the trigger – but he couldn't do it. Hurriedly, his face still contorted, he lowered the gun and took hasty steps away from his father, instead grabbing his backpack and running from the house.

His dirtbike was leaning up against the side and JJ didn't even think about what he was doing or where he was going – he just got onto the bike and rode away in a cloud of petrol smoke that had been sitting too long in the sun.

JJ couldn't come to grips with what he'd almost just done. He needed–

...well, JJ didn't really know what he needed... but he needed to be away from that house and the lifetime of pain that it had caused him.

§

JJ ended up at the Chateau. He'd taken the main road in to the house, but had almost fallen off the bike with how hard he'd swerved off the road at seeing the unmarked car sitting just shy of the driveway.

_Square grouper?_

No, JJ looked closer.

Undercover cop. Probably Shoupe. JJ rolled his eyes at that asshole. He just couldn't get enough of JJ and the Pogues – had to go sticking his nose in everybody's damn business.

JJ got back up on his bike and wheeled it around the back entrance to the house, away from Shoupe's prying eyes. No one else was home, it seemed, so JJ decided to wait out for someone to show up.

Sure enough, it only took an hour or so before he saw John B making his way down the driveway and cutting around the side of the house to the back shed where Big John's old kayaks and a bunch of other shit were.

JJ was relieved to see his friend. He hadn't heard tail or hide of him in almost two days. Kie had said he'd been napped by DCS and gotten away. JJ was curious as to where his friend had been hiding out in that time, because he hadn't been at the cinema with the other Pogues.

When JJ ran up to him and cupped a hand over his friend's mouth to keep him quiet, John B freaked the fuck out.

In hindsight, JJ could understand why.

After John B's initial confusion and frustration, he finally let up from hitting at his friend – who he had tackled to the ground – and JJ ran a hand through his hair as he tried to catch his breath.

His midsection throbbed from where John B had managed to hit him, bringing JJ's realization to the fact that Luke must have gotten a few good licks in in the car, because he probably had a broken rib and that's why it was hurting so much. After all, John B hadn't tapped him _that_ hard.

"What are you doing?" John B demanded. JJ ran a hand through his hair, his eyes wild.

"Shut up," he panted, pulling John B down behind a kayak so they couldn't be noticed. "See that? They're watching us, okay?" JJ pointed through the trees to the unmarked car he'd spotted earlier.

"Who?"

"I don't know. Let's go. Sneak around to the dock. Gotta go this way." JJ led his friend through the shallows of the marshy water surrounding the Chateau. JJ held his backpack over his head so that it wouldn't get wet. And also for maximum coverage and protection from prying eyes. John B could roll his eyes all he wanted but JJ wasn't taking any chances with the square groupers or the cops.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," JJ whispered, stopping them in their tracks. "You got the keys to the _Pogue_?"

"Yeah," John B nodded, patting his shirt pocket. They kept going through the shoulder deep water, wading as fast as they could but it was still unbelievably slow. When they made it into the boat, John B started up the engine and they made their grand escape.

JJ was grinning to himself as they slid away easily along the marsh. He just hoped Kie and Pope didn't try to go to the Chateau and end up getting themselves caught out.

John B ended up taking them to one of the outskirt woodland parts of the island that he and JJ used to hide from their parents at when they were little ankle-biters - Rixon's Cove. There were these two thrones that had been constructed out of old rocks and mortar which JJ and his friend had claimed as their own.

The _real_ Kings of the OBX.

Now, they just reminded JJ of how much those days were a world away. Especially from now when they were being chased by what seemed like everyone on the island.

"First, I almost get strangled to death by Kooks, and now I'm on the hook for 30 grand. We should just dip," JJ muttered, looking out to the ocean. It was still today. Like the calm before a storm.

Maybe Aggie was threatening a second go around after all.

Or maybe the weather could just sense the absolute shitstorm coming tonight...

– _Midsummers_ – otherwise known as the bane of JJ's existence.

"Okay, where do you wanna go? Hm?" John B challenged him from where he sat perched on his throne, elbows resting on his knees.

JJ considered the question like he hadn't thought about running away every day since his mom had gone. "Yucatan," he said, waving his hand with nonchalance.

"Yucatan?" John B rolled his eyes on an exhale. He said it like JJ was crazy. But JJ had thought about this a lot.

"No, I'm dead serious right now. Surf all day, and then we can just live off lobsters we catch with our bare hands."

John B shook his head. "You just wanna leave 'cause you got your ass beat."

JJ levelled his friend with a look. "You didn't see the photos." JJ looked down at his feet, at the shoes that were still wet from the marsh. He worried his lip between his teeth.

He'd managed to fill John B in on his being arrested for sinking Topper's boat. He knew he wasn't supposed to, but JJ figured that Pope had probably explained everything to Kie back at Heyward's when he was cuffed anyway, so there was no harm in letting John B know what had gone down since he'd been MIA.

"Think about it," John B said, exasperated. He jumped down from his perch. "They're willing to kill for the gold, then it's gotta be out there."

"Oh my god! Have you lost your mind?" JJ tore his hat from his head, staring his friend straight in the eye. "One hundred years, man. One hundred years, people have been tryin' to find this Royal Merchant, and no one succeeded. And you think _you_ are gonna be the one that actually finds it?" John B dropped JJ's gaze but he wasn't done. JJ was never done. "When will you get it in your thick skull? If you keep goin' down this road, you're gonna end up just like your dad!"

John B's eyes were stormy at that, and he planted two hands on JJ's chest and shoved him – hard.

"I can't give up, JJ! The last time I saw that dude," John B wavered, getting all up in JJ's face, "...we got in an argument, and then he took all of our rent money and dipped for this 'Royal Merchant'. And then I told him he was a shit father, and you know how the rest of the story goes."

JJ bit at the inside of his lip. He hadn't seen his friend look that vulnerable since the day he'd been told his dad was missing.

JJ sighed, watching after his friend as he ran a shaky hand through his hair, trying to calm himself down. JJ dropped his tone, sympathetic – reflex. "Bro, that wasn't your fault–"

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is, JJ! Do you not understand that?" John B was back in JJ's face and this time JJ was the one to avert his eyes like a cowardly dog. "I can't give up on the hunt, man. I don't care who's out there, who's gonna try to kill us. Do you understand that? You know that."

Then John B walked away from him. He grabbed his bag from his throne and made his way over to the _Pogue_ , ready to leave JJ behind if he needed to. JJ hated that. All their lives, they'd been in everything together, always looking out for each other, but now...

Now, it looked like John B was going to abandon JJ in a way that JJ never would have even considered if their roles were reversed. Ever since his dad had disappeared, John B had changed. JJ hadn't wanted to admit it had happened – had chalked it up to John B's way of dealing with his emotions.

But this was a whole new threat of betrayal. One that JJ didn't know if he could handle.

"Look, I've got a plan," John B sighed. "You comin' or what?"

John B threw his bag into the boat, turning back to lock eyes with JJ one more time. JJ clenched his jaw.

"Four hundred million, JJ. ...How much do you owe in restitution?"

And with that, JJ knew... He couldn't let his friend do this alone. He wouldn't let his friend distance himself from JJ. Because if JJ didn't have John B, did he really have anyone? He wouldn't force his other friends to make that decision for him... he couldn't afford to.

So, JJ nodded once and followed after his friend, climbing into the boat.

 _Pogues for life_ and all that that entailed.

§

Katie looked out over the trimmed green lawn of the Kildare Island Country Club. She didn't think she'd ever witnessed so many people so dressed up in her life.

And the venue? Well, it was like the hurricane had never even hit this side of the island.

Katie shook it off, instead making her way inside to find the manager. Tonight was her first big gig and she wasn't about to let it slide, no matter the confusion of the last few days.

The manager that she'd gotten the job from a few days ago wasn't anywhere to be seen, so instead she cornered a receptionist.

"Hi, I'm looking for Marcus?" she asked. The receptionist gave her a sweet smile.

"Oh, honey, he's here but he's not actually working tonight. But our other manager Sabrina would be happy to help you. I can take you to her if you'd like?" the woman said. Katie smiled, nodding once.

"That would be great, thankyou."

"Alright, follow me."

Katie hiked up the skirt of the black semi-formal slip dress that she'd borrowed from her mother for the night. Marcus had made it clear that it was an upscale event, so Katie had had to dress like she belonged if she wanted the job.

Katie was just glad that she could fit into her mother's garment, because there was no way anything this fancy had ever seen the inside her own wardrobe.

The receptionist led Katie out onto the deck where a professional looking woman was directing foot traffic. After a few introductions, the woman gave her a tight smile, obviously stressed.

"Hello, I'm Sabrina, Marcus told me all about you," she said, extending her hand.

"Katie Daykin," the girl nodded, shaking the woman's hand. She noticed the way her eye roved over the girl, assessing her attire. Katie had thought she'd looked nice when she stepped out of her house – definitely different than how she'd ever presented before, but still nice. She'd even added a flower vine wrapped around her left forearm to match the _Midsummers_ aesthetic that she knew was strived for at this event.

"Fantastic," Sabrina said. "Well, the band's supposed to be right over here. I'm sure that you'll find everything set up how you need it. Just make yourself at home with the musicians. I trust that Marcus gave you the tracklist for the evening?"

Katie nodded. "Yes, he handed it to me when I came in for my interview."

"Okay, well just familiarise yourself with the others and I'll come back over before we're ready to start," Sabrina smiled. Then, before Katie could reply, the woman was scurrying away to find another important job to do.

Katie let herself look around the venue. She could see Pope Heyward and his father setting up a barbecue of sorts. Pope looked like he was being berated, and Katie, out of curiosity and pure nosiness that she knew she got from her mother, couldn't help but eavesdrop.

After the bustle of JJ Maybank's arrest at Heyward's bait shop, Katie hadn't been able to keep her curious thoughts at bay. Especially after seeing JJ at the police station that morning. There was just something wrong with what had happened when they'd left and Katie couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"And you know the deal! One of these rich kids messes up, they'll still go to college and meet another rich person. Then they'll make more rich kids, who'll _also_ get third and fourth chances," Heyward sighed as he pulled various appliances from the bed of his truck.

"I know. I gotta do better. I get it."

"All right? You wanna spend your whole life grindin' it out like me?" Heyward grunted, lifting something heavy.

Pope's jaw dropped. "It's your grindin' keepin' us afloat in the first place."

"I expect better for you, Pope. I want better for you. And if you end up like me, I will consider that a personal failure. So please, keep it in check. At least until you have your scholarship interview... You need to wake the hell up. And you could start by picking better friends."

"Don't talk about my friends," Pope scowled.

"What'd you say to me? You don't know nothin'. Friends. _Shit_. You'll see. You'll see."

Then Pope's father was distracted by someone from the country club making their way over to them. Katie bit her lip as she watched Pope light up the barbecue. For a moment, his eyes lifted as if he could feel her eyes on him.

They locked gazes for a moment and Katie managed to give him a shy smile and a small wave. Pope's brow furrowed in the way Katie was finding herself getting used to – the one that told her the person recognized her, but couldn't tell from where.

She figured that that's what she'd have to deal with if she was going to disappear for so long and show back up out of nowhere...

The party started up about an hour later as more guests arrived. Katie made herself known with the band and they ran through the tracklist to make themselves acquainted. Then, just as the sun set, the music started to play. Katie found her mind wandering as she worked.

Her eyes settled on Kiara Carerra in a pretty lilac colored dress as she approached Pope and scared the living shit out of him. Her gaze wandered over Sarah Cameron as she seemed pissed off with her boyfriend Topper and avoiding her father and stepmom.

She regarded Rafe Cameron and Kelce as they snuck drinks from the waiters. Then watched the group of girls in the middle of the dancefloor as they bent low to take sips of champagne away from the prying eyes of their parents.

From Katie's standpoint, though, up on the stage – she could see everything. She tried her hardest to ignore them and get on with her job. After all, the one person she had hoped to see here tonight - after finding out that he was a staff member, too - was nowhere to be found. Much to Katie's disappointment...

§

In the dark, John B moored the _Pogue_ on the shore down the beach from The Country Club. JJ jumped down from the boat, making sure not to land in too much wet sand and ruin his uniform. It was already crumpled enough from being squashed into his backpack in a hurry.

JJ was just glad that his vest covered most of the damage done to his white shirt. "Ready?" he asked.

John B just grunted. "Can you believe this Midsummer shit, man?"

"Of course I can," JJ shrugged as they started walking up the beach. "Happens every year. No matter how screwed up the rest of us are. So, like, what's the plan, exactly?"

"Okay, look, I need you to get this to Sarah." John B handed him a small note and immediately, JJ's eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas.

"Ooh! Can I read it?" He was already pulling it open.

"No, you can't read it."

"Who's Vlad?" JJ grinned. John B just rolled his eyes.

"God, do you ever listen?" he muttered. JJ just chuckled to himself.

"Hold up..." JJ stopped in his tracks, smirking at his friend. "Are you mackin' Sarah Cameron?"

John B immediately freaked out, giving JJ the exact reaction he wanted. "Would you shut up?"

"You're macking Sarah Cameron!" JJ laughed excitedly.

"All right, man. I'm doin' it for everybody, all right!? What?"

JJ just grinned at his oh-so-stupid friend. He didn't think he'd ever met anyone who thought with his dick even more than JJ did. "Nothin'. Thanks for bein' a team player, bro."

John B just rolled his eyes at his friend, then moved forward to help him with his bowtie.

"Yeah, well... You know, could you just hold still?"

"So.. I just give that to Sarah? Huh?"

"Yes, just give it to Sarah. Hold steady." John B struggled with the small item of clothing for a second as JJ looked down at him with a sly smirk.

" _Vlad_... Really?"

John B dropped his hands, levelling him with an unamused glare. JJ fixed the rest of his shirt together as John B dropped down to their bags, ignoring the slew of bullshit mutterings making fun of him coursing through JJ's lips.

When he pulled JJ's gun from the bag, he glared at his friend. "Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm not kidding you."

"If you get caught with this thing in a pinch, you're goin' to jail," John B told him with wide eyes, before shoving the firearm into his own bag where JJ couldn't have it. JJ just rolled his eyes.

"Fine, but if I get ambushed, it's on you."

Then, slapping JJ once on the ass as a goodbye between friends – no homo – JJ set off towards the club. He fixed his hair, it looked a right mess after John B had confiscated his old fishing cap, but it was the best he had going for him so it'd have to do.

JJ walked up to the man standing at the front door of the country club, posted up like a bouncer to stop any Pogues from gatecrashing. Good thing JJ was wearing his disguise - _*cough*_ uniform. He had his little tray with a few glasses on it as his cover. "I keep finding glasses way down the beach. Do me a favor. Try to keep 'em corralled, will ya? I thought you were security," he scoffed, smirking as he walked past the guard.

JJ looked around as he made his way through the crowd with his fake drinks. He was scanning for any sight of Sarah Cameron. His eyes widened momentarily when they landed on the girl on the stage.

JJ hadn't known that Katie Daykin could sing.

But as her sweet voice filled his ears and the crowd on the dance floor swung easily to the tune falling from his lips, he was mesmerized.

She was a Siren all right.

Now he knew what job she'd been applying for all those weeks ago when she'd covered for the Pogues as they used the computer.

She was damn impressive, that was for sure. JJ appreciated the tight black satin dress she wore, hugging her in all the right places. Her hair was out like always but somehow seemed less crazed than usual, instead the curls were tamed and pretty and uniform as they hung low over her shoulders and down her back. Her face was more open than usual - happier, mysterious. Her slender neck seemed exposed as she sung, her face tilted towards a spotlight.

She was dolled up in a light layer of makeup, which JJ had never seen her wear before. It made her look more like a Kook, but no less pretty than she normally was. She had her eyes closed with a slight smile on her face as she sung into the microphone. As she held it, JJ noticed the vine-like flowers winding down her arm, and his eyes squinted when they fell on her pinky finger around the microphone. If he wasn't mistaken, he could see a tiny little tattoo there.

 _What a little rebel_ , he grinned to himself. He managed to shake himself off from staring at her, instead going back to the task at hand.

He found Sarah Cameron dancing with her friends, looking the opposite to Katie in a figure hugging white dress. JJ made his way over, weaving through the crowd.

"Hey!" Someone yelled, hands on JJ's shoulders. He jumped, turning around quickly before exhaling in relief at realizing it was just Pope.

"Dude, don't sneak up on me like that right now," he grinned as Pope led him away from the crowd again. Then the boy enveloped him a tight hug. "Whoa. Unexpected PDA there, Dr. Spock. But, uh... hey, love you, too, man." JJ cupped the boy's cheeks and pecked a kiss to one side.

"Dude, I'm sick over all this shit, man," Pope said, drawing back with his eyes wide. JJ's brow furrowed, playing along as he looked over his friend.

"You're sick? You don't seem sick," he said, placing the back of his hand on his friend's forehead. Pope slapped his hand away.

"I'm sick on the inside!"

"Right. Well, I already knew that."

JJ watched as Pope scanned him with wide eyes, concern filtering through them.

"Did Shoupe do that?"

"Oh, this? No. This is– It's my dad. You know? Has that right jab. Can really snap it off at times."

Pope worried his lips between his teeth. "That looks like more than a jab, bro."

JJ shrugged. "It's nothin' that hasn't happened before."

Pope sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you take the fall for all this. It's my fault!"

"No, it's not."

"–It's my fault."

"Shut up," JJ rolled his eyes.

"–You took the fall for me."

"Shut up."

"–I'll tell the truth, go to the cops—"

"Shut up, Pope! Shut up. For once in your life, trust someone else. ...John B and I got it all sorted out. We're gonna be filthy rich, man. We're back in the G-game, baby," JJ grinned.

"G-game?" Pope frowned, breathing hard. "I thought we lost the gold game."

JJ shrugged. "Yeah, well, we're in overtime now. Fourth and one, baby," he said. He caught Sarah moving out of the corner of his eye and began backing up slightly. "Be right back."

"Fourth and one?"

JJ nodded, trying to explain with his hands as he kept his eye on the prize. "I'll explain– I'll explain later!" As he backed up, he felt another tap on his shoulder. Jeez he was popular tonight. "Yes?"

An old man was staring at him expectantly, and for a moment JJ forgot that he actually worked here, and looked like it too, in his uniform.

"Dewar's and tonic."

JJ nodded, patting the man on the shoulder as he took another step away. "Right away, Mr. Dunleavy. Be right there."

JJ kept moving until he stood next to Sarah Cameron. Then he began dancing awkwardly next to her. He tapped on the shoulder once.

When she noticed him, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"JJ?"

Out of habit, he held a finger to his lips, telling her to keep it down. "Yep."

"What?"

"I got a, uh, note from Vlad," he said, handing it over and making it _real_ smooth in his dancemoves.

"From..." Sarah's eyes lightened with her growing smile. JJ could barely hold in the roll of his eyes.

"Yeah."

"From Vlad?" she grinned.

"Yeah. Just, read the note."

Then JJ was dancing away from her so as not to draw attention. The girl was hardly covert about any of it as she giggled excitedly to herself.

 _Now_ there's _someone who's never been chased by square groupers,_ he thought. _She hasn't had anything happen to her to put the fear of god into her before and make her learn how to be discrete with coded messages..._

As JJ turned away, he looked up suddenly to see Rafe right before him, stopping him in his tracks. With two hands holding onto JJ's biceps, he leered down at him.

JJ scowled.

"I'm wonderin' if you could get me a Mai Tai, my friend," Rafe said.

"Yeah, Pogue, how about you make that two?" Kelce chimed, right next to him. This was bad, this was very very bad.

JJ stalled. "Oh, well, uhhh... I'm on the clock right now. You guys look spiffy. You know, uh, I got a couple of orders ahead of you, so why don't you guys just go ahead and wait by the bar?"

"Uhh, help yourselves to hors d'oeuvres," JJ said, walking backwards and trying to find a way to escape.

"Oh, yeah. Guys, JJ's gonna serve us some hors d'oeuvres," Rafe grinned, following JJ as he backed away.

"Right? Well, here are the hors d'oeuvres.," JJ said, pointing to the table behind him.

"Okay."

"And, uh, I'll be right back, okay?" JJ nodded.

Rafe shook his head. "We're actually gonna follow you in here just to make sure..."

"Ah, shit!" JJ cursed before he hightailed it inside the country club. He tripped over chairs and around guests as he tried to get away from the Kooks on his tail.

"Hey, hey!"

"Hey, JJ! Come on, bud!" Rafe yelled after him. JJ was barely listening. A girl gasped as he dodged her, trying to find somewhere where the Kooks couldn't follow him. It shouldn't have been hard, like, he worked there. Surely he knew about some nook or cranny that they didn't?

Ahh, who was he kidding? Those assholes had been coming here since they were in diapers... they probably knew the building like the back of their hands.

"So sorry," JJ called out behind him. "Ah, excuse me, guys," he said as he moved hastily around couples. Finally, he saw the men's bathroom and ducked inside. He banged on cubicle doors but they were all in use.

With a panicked sigh, JJ finally thought of a place where those guys couldn't go. He just hoped it wasn't occupied, because that would make for a _very_ awkward conversation that he didn't really fancy having.

He ducked out of the bathroom and across the hall to the ladies room. Slamming the door behind him and locking it, he leant back against it with a sigh. His heart was pounding in his chest.

Then someone cleared their throat before him and JJ's eyes flew open.

"Shit," he mutters. "I uhh–"

"Do you usually find yourself in the girl's bathroom?" Katie asked, her hands poised over the basin. With a sly grin and a raised brow, JJ found himself effectively mute. He raised his hand and scratched the back of his neck, chuckling nervously.

"No, I-Uh... it's just these guys..."

Katie nodded at him, moving to dry her hands on some spare paper towel. JJ looked around. It didn't seem like there was anyone else in here – luckily. She must've been on her break or something.

"Rafe and Topper? I figured you guys had some beef after the cinema."

JJ nodded, his mouth feeling dry. A moment of silence fluttered between them as JJ stared at the floor trying to simultaneously catch his breath and avoid the inevitable embarrassment of this situation.

Because _of course_ she was here to witness him like this. The universe was just that cruel.

JJ could feel her eyes on him so he looked up. She was regarding him with a frown and the bite of her lip. Her eyes settled on the gash on his cheek and the split in his lip.

JJ could see some kind of realisation in her eyes but she didn't say anything for a moment as she sighed.

"Has anyone looked at that for you?"

She gestured to her own face with a pointed look as JJ stood in silence. Before he could refuse any of her pity, though, the curious girl just rolled her eyes.

"Sit," she commanded, gesturing to the pouffe chair beside the basin. JJ did as he was told as the girl crouched to look beneath the sink, and then pulled out a first aid kit.

JJ was glad there was no one else in the room.

Katie pulled the rubbing alcohol and something that cracked like a glowstick from the box. Then, before JJ could say anything, she moved to stand over him, her body between his legs.

JJ couldn't help but hold his breath.

The girl couldn't know the not-so-innocent things coursing through his mind as she was in this position before him. After all, she didn't think anything of it. Instead her eyes were on his injuries.

With her eyes on his cuts instead of his eyes, she methodically cleaned his wounds, pressing the glowstick thing to his skin. It was cold. Then she rubbed the alcohol over his cuts. They stung only slightly.

She moved to gently grip JJ's chin between her thumb and forefinger, making his pulse stall for a moment. She tipped his head to get a better look at his face. With nowhere else to look but at her gentle face, he watched her concentration in the dip between her brows and the way she bit her lip as she worked.

"Look, I really don't need you to–"

"Shut it," she said in a low voice, cutting him off. "We can't very well have you walking back out into the most prestigious evening for the club, looking like _that_." She eyed him once and gave him a small grin, to which he chuckled at. It made her blush – JJ liked that look on her. He liked that he could tell he was the one to make her blush.

"Mmm," he agreed, "God forbid these assholes get a glimpse of the real world." As he rolled his eyes, the curious girl grinned.

"So, how'd the rest of that kegger end up the other night? I left early but I heard you're running around the island shooting firearms..." Katie trailed off, smirking.

JJ shrugged. "Where'd you hear that?"

Katie's shoulders lifted slightly, just once. "Overheard my mom and another deputy talking about it at the station when I went to pick her up... is it true?"

JJ considered her for a moment. He didn't want to confirm that to her, didn't want to say anything that would make her think badly of him. But then again, she'd already seen him be arrested. "Would it change your opinion of me if it was?"

Katie bit her lip. "I heard it was fired to distract Topper from drowning John B... figures... all the shit goes down right after I ditch the party. Sounds like you were just protecting a friend, though, and it's not like they can prove it anyway unless they find the gun. They'd need probable cause to search your house for it, too."

"That doesn't answer my question, Katie."

Katie smiled to herself. "Doesn't it?" JJ found himself frowning. This girl was more complex than he thought. Not knowing just how to respond to that, he fell quiet.

His mind drifted elsewhere as she daintily cleaned his wounds.

"I didn't know you could sing?" He said. A smile flirted at the edges of Katie's lips as she worked on cleaning him up. JJ felt his eyes drawn to it, well that and the growing flush in her cheeks.

"Well, my dad raised me on blues and rock. I guess I just picked up a few things..."

JJ shrugged. "Well, all I know is you sounded pretty great. Everyone I know can't sing for shit. I mean, you should hear John B – talk about a bag of cats being beaten against a wall. And don't get me started on Pope. I'm talking, porcelain scratching against itself or like nails on a chalkboard."

"And Kie?"

JJ opened his mouth to respond but then frowned. "Oh. Well uhh actually I don't think I've ever heard Kie sing. She can rap though. Oh, wait no, actually she's a big Marley fan but any replication of that always sounds so chill and laid back."

Katie then removed her hands from his face. JJ felt immediately empty.

"There, I think that's as good as it's going to get," she said. "Plus, you've been hiding in here long enough that I think whoever was after you is probably searching in a new place by now."

JJ felt his jaw threaten to drop but the girl just looked at him knowingly. "Trouble follows you everywhere, Jay..."

"It's JJ," he corrected automatically, but his voice felt sort of faraway as he watched her, trying to understand this curious girl that had snuck into his life. When they both realised she was still standing between his legs, she inhaled awkwardly and took a step back. He suddenly felt himself missing her body heat against him.

The space between them should have cut their tension away, but somehow, it made it thicker. The Siren took a deep breath. JJ couldn't help but watch her as she moved.

"Right... Anyway, I'd better be getting back to my set," she said with a nod, "My break has already gone on longer than any of them would have expected..."

"And god forbid they start playing something other than live music," JJ joined in on the joke with a grin. Katie chuckled under her breath with a smile. She packed up all of the first aid kit things she used before crouching down and placing the container back under the sink.

JJ stood up, making the room feel suddenly smaller. She blushed as she moved around him towards the door. He could smell her perfume wafting by him as she passed.

"I'll see you round, Maybank," she smiled as she unlocked the door. "Also, I guess this is two things you owe me for now..."

JJ smirked. "Just add it to my tab."

Katie grinned, nodding once. "Will do." Then she disappeared out the door, leaving JJ alone to wonder whether he'd imagined the whole encounter.

Creeping out of the ladies bathroom a moment later, JJ kept his eyes peeled for Kooks. Well... for any Kooks that were after him. Now that he was back in danger, his heart rate picked up again.

He made his way to the men's locker room, thinking that maybe a change of clothes could act as his disguise to get him the hell out of there without being seen.

Big mistake.

As soon as he stepped foot in the locker room, Rafe and Kelce and three other boys were waiting for him.

They descended on him, holding him back as Rafe grinned cockily. He held an imaginary club in his hands as JJ struggled beneath Kelce's grip. JJ cursed himself.

He had _told_ John B that this would happen but hat John B listened? No. Instead his friend was thinking with his dick and trying to get alone time with Sarah Cameron for who knows what? JJ could only guess but he was positive it wasn't just to talk. JJ was really wishing for his gun right now.

"Hold him still," Rafe rolled his eyes. "What do you think? A four iron, right? Keep his head still. I'm gonna line this up."

JJ groaned. "Very Rafe of you. Five on one?"

"If you could please stop talking?" Rafe rolled his eyes. "It's very disrespectful. I'm trying to hit a ball. Learn your etiquette, my friend."

"Come on," JJ grunted, exhaustion settling in his lungs as his windpipe was crushed a little more.

"Your face looks really bad. Starting to look like your dad a lot more," Rafe clicked his tongue as he spoke.

JJ glared at the older boy, spitting at his shoes. JJ hated that everyone on this damn island seemed to know his shit.

"Gentlemen! Is there a problem?" someone suddenly interrupted. JJ was let go, sprawling to the floor as he gasped for breath before standing up quickly. The security guard who had been watching the front door was now standing before them.

The Kooks were backing away. JJ saw his shot to make it out alive.

"Oh! Pardon me, officer. No, there's not an issue. I just– Actually, yes. No, there is an issue. Uh, we got a criminal trespass in progress here. Beep! Call it in, right?" he said, waving his hands in the air. "Blatant disrespect for private property. Yeah. I'm in violation of all kinds of shit, sir, but these young gentlemen–"

"Don't touch my shit," Kelce grunted, pawing him off as JJ reached out to fix the boy's bowtie.

"–uh, caught me, sir, and they're about to take me away. And that's what you should do, escort me out of here. You got me."

The security guard rolled his eyes. "Come on."

JJ grinned, turning to the other Kooks as the guard placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him still. "All right. Fix that tie, son. You're lookin' spiffy, too. You Powerpuff Girls have fun," he said as the guard backed him out of the room.

"Tell Kiara she looks pretty hot for a Pogue!" Rafe called out.

JJ immediately saw red. He broke out of the guard's grip and lunged for the other boy with a grunt. That shit was not okay. After everything that Rafe and Kie had been through, JJ knew enough to know that any word about her out of that boy's mouth was going to make him end up on the receiving end of a sharp right hook. Preferably JJ's.

The guard grabbed him again before JJ could follow through and give Rafe a black eye to match his own. "Hey! Stop it. Come here! Let's go!"

"You think I'm afraid of you, bro? Come on!" JJ yelled out as he was torn away from the group.

"Hey, safe travels back to the Cut," Rafe called out with a smirk.

"This ain't over!" JJ yelled.

"Hey, hey, it was really nice seein' you again, JJ!"

JJ was grumbling as the guard hauled him through the club, through the restaurant and reception and out onto the deck where everyone was dancing around Katie and her live band.

"Look– look, man, I can walk myself. I got legs. Can you see that, brother?" JJ said, trying to break free.

"Come on," the guard grunted, hauling him along, his grip on JJ's arm tight enough to give him another bruise. Another to add to his hundred others, he guessed.

"Look, I really appreciate what you did back there. Let me just walk out by myself," JJ said. Then he turned to one of the party guests. "Mr. Dunleavy, I see you got your drink. Good, that's really nice of you. I'm actually gonna down that."

JJ took the drink from the old man's hand and swallowed it in one gulp. The bite of alcohol didn't even make him wince.

JJ heard the band cease playing as the attention of every guest in the place was called to JJ and the commotion that his antics caused.

"Aah! Whoo! I really appreciate the discretion, Daryl, you know? It's okay, everybody! Do not panic. Leave it to the men and women in uniform," JJ grinned as he called out. "Let's hear it for them. Rose! You look like Lady Liberty," he said, pointing at Sarah Cameron's stepmom and the headdress she wore that would definitely take some drunken patron's eye out later tonight. "It's good to see you again. Hey, buddy, can I have one of those?"

JJ reached for another drink as the guard tried to kick him out.

"Let go of him!" JJ heard Kie call from across the crowd. "You can't boot him! I invited him here. I'm a member of this club."

JJ appreciated her trying to cover for him. He broke out of the guard's grip and managed to get away, pushing him back.

"Sorry about that. Hey, mandatory power hour at Rixon's, Kie. Pope, you as well, all right? Rixon's Cove. Let's roll!" JJ called out as he made it to the edge of the group of guests. Kie grinned as she ran after him. JJ turned towards the band, catching Katie's eye for a moment. She was smirking at him and he grinned.

On a whim, he sent her a mock salute, making the corner of her lip quirk up as he watched the curious girl chuckle. He was _so_ fired for this. His dad would kill him for losing his one steady job but JJ didn't care. To hell with this place and these people.

"All right, Kie, come on," JJ called. "Workers of the world unite. Throw off your chains!"

Kie caught up to him right as JJ rounded on John B.

"Colonel," JJ grinned, saluting his boy. John B smirked, imitating him.

"Captain."

"Mission accomplished, sir," JJ smirked. The two boys laughed as Pope tore away from his father and followed the rest of the Pogues out into the night.

"Later, losers!" John B called out. Kie whooped in agreeance.

§

It wasn't safe for them to head back to the Chateau yet, so Rixon's Cove, with the two rock thrones would have to do. Sitting around a makeshift fire, the four Pogues regarded eachother with wiry grins.

"Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me," Pope said. "So what's this mandatory meeting about?"

JJ looked to John B with a grin. His friend had spilled half the secret to him on the boat when they were moving to Midsummers, but not the whole story.

"Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed," JJ shrugged. He shuddered inwardly, remembering the photos from that morning at the police station.

John B grinned. "You ready for this?"

Kie shrugged. "Yeah."

John B smirked and got up from his seat. "So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant."

Pope rolled his eyes. JJ cursed out the boy in his head. He needed to shut up and listen. "Oh, my God. Here we go again with this," Pope muttered.

"No. All right, wait. Hear him out, all right?" JJ said, nodding at Pope.

"It's been here the whole time," John B assured them. "It's on the island."

"Are you serious?" Kie whispered. "Oh, my God."

"I'd like to voice my skepticism," Pope said, just shy of raising his hand like he was in math class. JJ rolled his eyes. Did this mean that they never had to risk their lives for that deep sea drone in the first place? JJ was gonna kill his friend if that were the case.

"I'm sure you would, Pope," John B grinned, "but can I please present you with my evidence, sir?"

Pope seceded with a sigh. "Proceed."

"All right. So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny," John B said, pulling out a leaflet of papers and handing them over to Kie. The girl lit up her torch to better read them.

"Who the hell's that?" Kie asked, saving JJ the effort.

"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck," John B said with a shrug, like it wasn't new information. "Check this out." He pointed down at the papers that had yet to be passed to JJ. "Here you go. Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery. So Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom."

JJ whistled – impressed – as the papers were handed to him. He couldn't read any of what was on the pages, so he passed them on to Pope.

"After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please, because that farm is..."

JJ slapped his knees in anticipation.

"...Tannyhill Plantation," John B grinned.

"Tannyhill?" Kie frowned. John B nodded.

"Yeah. So, after that, he used his money to free even more slaves, and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pisses off all the white planters, and then they decide to lynch him. So, on the day they were coming to get him, he writes a letter to his son as a farewell, and in the last line of that letter, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold."

"Where?" Kie whispered, grinning. JJ smirked at the group. This was about to get so fucking real and he was ready for it.

JJ was ready to become a multi-millionaire.

"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water. Except... there's no wheat," John B said. "You see, wheat is code for gold. Check this out. The gold is in parcel nine, near the water." John B pointed at the symbol at the bottom of the letter, the one stamped on the replica gold bar that looked like a handful of wheat.

"Holy shit," Pope whispered, finally starting to believe. That gave JJ hope, because if the most skeptical of the group could believe, then they might actually have this in the bag.

"All we need is an original survey map of the property, and we've found the gold," John B grinned.

"Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true," Pope laughed.

"Dude, it's like King Tut!" Kie cheered.

"I am a genius," John B nodded. JJ got up from his seat and embraced his best friend. "Hey, whoa! Hello! Fire! You're near the fire. You're gonna burn." John B hauled him away from the fire but JJ was barely paying attention to that small detail.

He was about to be filthy fucking rich.

He'd be on his Kook shit faster than you could even say 'Kook shit'.

"I'm so proud of you right now," JJ grinned. "I could kiss you."

"Thank you. That's really sweet of you," John B chuckled, but pushed JJ away before his friend followed through on his promise.

"Okay, so, guys. What's the plan?" Pope asked, rational as ever. Forget cadaver school, JJ thought Pope should be a party planner or professional organizer or something.

"Good question," John B nodded. "Sarah Cameron's coming tonight. She'll bring an original survey map–"

"Wait, wait, hold on," Kie demanded. "Sarah? Wh-why Sarah?"

John B stalled. "Um..."

JJ sat down beside Pope and grinned. "Oh, this is gonna be _good_."

John B bit his lip. "Sarah, um, she– she got me into the archives in Chapel Hill yesterday, and that's where I got the letter."

Kie frowned. "You were in Chapel Hill with Sarah Cameron?"

"Yeah, um—"

"He was mackin' on her," JJ supplied helpfully. What could he say, he liked to stir the pot.

"I wasn't macking," John B tried, shaking his head, glaring at JJ. JJ just waved him off with a smirk.

"You were _totally_ macking Sarah Cameron."

"I wasn't macking on her, okay? I was... using her for access."

"There was access, all right," JJ muttered, smirking. John B rolled his eyes at his friend. Pope chuckled, finally beginning to understand.

"Did you tell her about the treasure?" Kie demanded.

"I was trying to get into the archives," John B tried.

"Is that a yes?"

"I– I left out key details..."

"Yo, what? You let a Kook in on our secret?" Kie said, hurt and betrayed. JJ felt the need to eat popcorn as he watched this showdown. "What about Pogue Lyfe? What about the T-shirt company, bro?"

"I was just using her for information!"

"Why don't I believe you?" she muttered.

"I'm trying to make us filthy rich here!" John B yelled. "Okay, so that we can pay off a boat, or– or, uh... send you to autopsy school to study dead bodies. Look, you guys know me. Do I look like the type of person to fall for _Sarah Cameron_?"

"Uh... Do you _want_ us to answer that, or–" Pope chimed in. JJ could have kissed his friend for enjoying this as much as he did.

"Just– just stop," John B held up a hand to the other boys, who just snickered.

"Look, you don't know her yet. I do! You can't trust her," Kie said.

"Her brother _did_ hit me in the back with a golf club," Pope wagered. John B rolled his eyes.

"Rafe and Sarah are different human beings."

JJ looked over at Kie, curious and brave enough to ask the question he'd been dying to ask for years. "What did she do to you, exactly?"

Kie sighed. "Look, she's like a– like a spitting cobra. First, she– she blinds you, and then—"

"This is a bad analogy," Pope muttered. Kie lost her temper at that.

"Listen to me!" she yelled, then she eyed each boy individually and completely serious. "Whatever we get, she's gonna try to take."

After that, the Pogues had coasted in awkward silence back to the Chateau as thunder rolled overhead. Whoever had been staking out the house obviously hadn't lasted long because they were nowhere to be seen.

The Pogues piled into the van and made their way towards the Hawk's Nest by the beach where John B had arranged to meet up with Sarah Cameron.

"All right," JJ called as they parked the van.

"Hit it, boys! We're goin'. Recon mission," Pope grinned as he hauled the sliding door open.

"Yo, uh... so, uh, I think I'm gonna do this one by myself... tonight," John B said, turning to the other Pogues. JJ sighed.

"Really?" he frowned as thunder rumbled around them.

"What?" John B frowned. Kie rolled her eyes.

"Nothin' brother," JJ said with the dismissive shake of his head, keeping his mouth shut on this one.

"Look, I don't want to spook Sarah with the peanut gallery."

"I just don't understand why we're involving her at all," Kie muttered.

"Kie, we're not involving her, okay?" John B said. "It's– it's just, uh, like a– a business meeting... thing... Look, once we get what we need, we cut her loose, all right? Plus, we need the map."

Kie levelled John B with a look that made JJ think the two had forgotten he and Pope were also in the van with them. "Promise me nothing's happening between you," she demanded in a low voice. JJ suddenly felt awkward. John B had moved on from Kie so quickly, and that had to hurt somewhat, even though she'd been the one to reject him.

"Nothing is happening, Kie," he said, unblinking.

"I'm being serious," Kie rolled her eyes.

"Okay!"

"Look, this isn't about you, and this isn't about us. This is about her," Kie frowned. "Dude, she's gonna get inside your head. Just promise me nothing's happening between you guys."

"I promise," John B said with wide eyes. Completely unconvincing.

" _That_ was really believable," JJ muttered to Pope. The other boy nodded with a slight smirk.

"A hundred percent believable," Pope chuckled.

"Anyways, um... I'm gonna take care of business," John B said, grabbing his bag and jumping out of the car.

JJ nodded. "You're gonna take care of it so well..."

"I tell you," Pope agreed. "We'll just sit here... in the hot-ass car.... While it's lightning."

Kiara rolled her eyes as thunder crashed around them. John B ignored the three of them, shaking his head and wandering off towards the old lookout.

After a while, Pope looked up at the girl. "Kiara, holding onto your grudge is like drinking poison and thinking Sarah will die," he said.

"Exactly," JJ nodded in agreeance before finding his lighter in his pocket. Like any other time he'd been bored, he found a stray joint and lit it up. Kie wrinkled her nose at the situation and Pope just rolled his eyes at JJ.

"Dude."

"What?" JJ shrugged. Defensive.

"Signal," Pope said pointedly. "Keep it clear?!"

JJ just waved him off.

"Come on, live a little. John B's got this one in the bag," JJ grinned, inhaling. It wasn't like the job he had to do was hard. In reality, it didn't need the four of them. He was just picking up some maps from Sarah Cameron.

... _and macking on her in the middle of the job_ , JJ smirked to himself.

The conversation between the three other Pogues in the van was easy – though a little tense on Kie's end – while they waited for John B to come back. JJ told the others about tye police photos and how Peterkin has cornered him. Then he told them what happened at the party and how Rafe and Kelce cornered him in the locker room.

He didn't tell them about Katie.

So far, since she'd been back, he hadn't told anyone about her. And he wanted to keep it that way. He wanted to keep her for himself at the moment.

Kie and Pope had had decidedly less interesting and exciting a day than JJ had. When the lightning and the thunder started, it was a miracle that they'd heard Sarah calling out to them for help over the storm. Running out to the lookout, the Pogues descended on John B sprawled at a horrific angle on the ground, passed out. He'd obviously fallen..., or been pushed.

Sarah was cradling his head and begging the Pogues to do something, call someone, find anyone.

JJ looked up out of instinct and saw Topper at the top of the lookout. He scowled, rage coursing through him - JJ knew exactly what must have happened. Pope ran off for help as John B drifted in and out of consciousness.

This was bad. This was very _very_ bad. This was so unbelievably bad.

_Shit shit shit shit._

John B passed out again and JJ felt himself filled with insurmountable rage. He yelled out, needing to be loud enough to be heard over the storm.

"Pope! Come on!"

He couldn't lose his best friend. Not like this. Not when they were so close.

•

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh young love... burns bright, breaks hearts.


	6. S01E06 : PARCEL 9

**S01E06 : PARCEL 9**

"I'm sorry. You're staying _where_?"

JJ looked up from where he'd been standing behind Pope. The kid was sitting at a table at The Wreck while Kie set the tables before any customers arrived. JJ had been looking over Pope's shoulder at the plat-map John B had managed to get from Sarah Cameron – you know... after he'd been pushed off a lookout by her psycho boyfriend. Or... ­ _ex_ -boyfriend now...

"Tannyhill," John B sighed, looking up at Kie as she passed around where he stood at the front banister that overlooked the servers.

"So, you're _living_ with Sarah Cameron." Kie rolled her eyes as she walked over to JJ and Pope, setting down a tray of drinks. JJ grabbed one, lips on the straw to give him something to do. He didn't need to be a part of this jealousy conversation – not when it was so entertaining to watch anyway.

"Okay, look, the only reason I'm living there is because her dad bailed me out, right?" John B defended, waving his hands around. "And it's way better than foster care, which, by the way, is where I was about to go if Ward didn't–"

"Hey, so like do you have a membership to the clubs now?" Pope interrupted. He sent JJ a side-eyed grin, to which JJ smirked at. God how he loved that Pope could share in JJ's sarcasm and teasing. Especially when it was at John B's expense.

That's what a lifetime of friendship did for a group of teenagers like them. Taking the absolute mickey out of each other was practically their birthright.

"I don't know, Pope," John B sighed.

"What about those golf carts they drive around? You get one of them?" JJ asked with a wide grin. Pope chuckled.

"Does it come with a sweater-vest, or do you have to buy one on your own?" Pope kept on. Kie and John B ignored the two boys, intent on keeping up with their argument.

"Look, you promised. You said you weren't with her."

"Bro, just own it," JJ shrugged, eyeing his friend. "She got you."

"Look, if you wanna hang out with her, that's fine. But, I'm letting you know now that I'm not doing anything with Sarah," Kie lamented, then snatched JJ's empty drink from his hand and placed it back on her server's tray. John B just rolled his eyes at her.

"Do you guys see her here? No, right. Okay. A little focus would be fantastic. We've got the map, right?"

JJ shrugged, looking down at the map on the table between them all again. "It's out of whack 'cause the guy was ganja'd when he drew it."

Kie rolled her eyes. "It's 'cause the coast has changed."

 _Right_ , JJ thought. That made sense. The thing was a century old – or more. Plus there'd been Aggie since then to change the coastline, and who knows how many other hurricanes.

"So... we just have to look for landmarks that haven't changed," Pope said, ever the logistical one.

"What about the old forts?" John B supplied. Kie grinned, their argument forgotten. The promise of four-hundred million dollars in gold could do that to a person. Big picture thinking and all that.

"Battery Jasper," she grinned.

JJ let out a whoop as the group got their shit together. Kie palmed off her serving duties to her dad, making some excuse about school and independent study and extra credit. He had just rolled his eyes and let the Pogues go; he was used to this shit by now. Plus, after she'd run out on them at Midsummers two nights ago, they figured they couldn't stop their daughter from doing what she wanted.

Kie was stubborn like that.

They hauled themselves into their van and headed off through the island towards Battery Jasper. It was a concrete coastal gun battery named after some military guy. They used it in the 1800s to defend the coast from any British Army fleet attacks. It had kind of delved into ruin beyond repair and was nothing more than a drop zone for drugs nowadays.

JJ had picked up many a key there in his humble time.

His dad had even used it as a drop off point, back in the day when he'd been carting and shipping loads.

"We're in Battery, right here," Pope said, pointing down at the map. He'd opened it up on some rock so that they could all see the landscape. "So, if this is Parcel Nine, then it's somewhere northeast of here."

"Somewhere there," Kie pointed.

"Right."

JJ frowned, looking down at the map, then he looked ahead of them at the view. "Over there? Guy's, that's not Tannyhill, that's a subdivision."

John B just waved him off. "Tannyhill Plantation _was_ the entire island. It got sold into smaller pieces over time."

"So, we're just looking for an old stone wall," Pope said, pointing at some other indicators on the map. They all got back into the car and started heading down a side road. The trees grew more dense around them, like someone hadn't been round to this part of the island to trim up for months, no... _years._ Maybe even decades.

"Okay, so the road should split up here," Pope said from the passenger seat, pointing out the front window. Kie and JJ were stuffed into the back, not saying a word and instead keeping their eyes on the lookout for any kind of stone wall.

"Okay," John B said, eyes on the road before him as he drove.

"All right. You're gonna take a left."

Almost the second that John B turned left, JJ's eye widened. "That looks like a stone wall to me."

John B slammed on the breaks and JJ was glad for a moment that he'd held on to something, because otherwise he'd have flown right through the windscreen.

"This is it," Pope confirmed, holding up the map. The four young Pogues got out of the car and walked towards the property. That was, until John B stopped in his tracks, looking over at the house beyond the wall.

It was hard to see through the forest of weeds that had overgrown in the garden, but it was there.

"Not the Crain house," he whispered. JJ felt dread settle in his stomach.

"Are you kidding me?" Kie rolled her eyes. She'd never believed the stories. But JJ knew first hand that they were real.

"Worst-case scenario," he nodded. And it really was. But honestly, there was probably no better a guard dog for the gold than old crazy Crain.

"Why'd it have to be here... of all places?" Pope sighed.

 _Because fate is a cruel bitch_ , JJ thought.

"I heard that Mrs. Crain buried her husband's head on the property," JJ muttered. He clenched his hands at his sides as the others gave him long looks before helping themselves over the stone wall.

"Honestly, I don't really believe the stories of this place," John B chimed in as they walked a little closer towards the house.

"Which stories did you hear?" JJ asked, a hand on his friend's shoulder. Kie rolled her eyes behind them.

"The one where she killed her husband with an axe and that she's been holed up ever since?" she said. Her tone held a certain _'duh!'_ like she thought JJ was an idiot. "On certain nights, when the moon is full... you can see her in the window!" she smirked, whispering as she waved her fingers in a voodoo fashion in JJ's face.

JJ rolled his eyes and batted her hands away.

"No, Kie, it's not funny, 'cause it's all true."

"Waah!"

Pope was chuckling behind the girl but JJ rolled his eyes. They didn't know what he knew.

"I swear to God, guys, this is all real. I knew Hollis. Jeez!"

Pope raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you knew Hollis Crain?"

"Yeah, dude," JJ nodded. Though... that wasn't her name anymore... They all knew Hollis Crain, just not as Hollis _Crain_.

"Dude, how do _you_ know Hollis Crain?" Pope rolled his eyes, stopping the group as he stood his ground to cross his arms over his chest.

"She was my babysitter, man. She told me all about it. Told me the truth... about her mother and what happened in this house," JJ said, eyes shifting around the area for any sign of a murderous old lady. "So, as a kid, she heard all the stories that her mother killed her father, and... she was a murderer and all. Hollis didn't believe it. Until that night..."

"What night?" John B asked warily, sucked into the old ghost story like every other sucker.

"The night it all came back to her..." JJ whispered. "When Hollis was six years old, she heard her parents arguing downstairs. So, she goes downstairs to see her mom washing her hands in a sink... full of blood. Her mother just says that she cut her finger. The next morning, she says her father and her split up.

"But then, Hollis noticed something. Her mother going into the parlor constantly, in and out and in and out with plastic bags. Weeks pass, and Hollis decides to use the outhouse. And as she's using it, she looks down, and there, in the outhouse, is her father's head, looking straight back at her!"

John B pushed JJ out of the way. "God, you are so full of shit."

"Dude, I swear to God, man."

"Did she call the police?" Pope asked.

JJ shook his head. "She didn't have time."

Pope visibly gulped and JJ was finally glad that at least _someone_ was seeing the real danger of this situation.

"We can't do this—" the boy worried his teeth between his lips. John B had ignored them both and charged ahead. He was halfway through the overgrown garden. JJ's heart pounded in his chest. There were way too many places for an old serial killer to hide out here. Way too dangerous for them to be walking around like nothing was wrong.

"Wait! Dude!" JJ called out, trying to grab onto John B.

"What?"

"You sure you wanna do this?" JJ leveled him with a look. He hoped his friend could see the actual real fear in his eyes. JJ didn't care if it was just some story, because he believed the old woman wasn't quite right in the head. And he believed it enough to know they needed to get the hell out of there. "She's an axe murderer, man. And you've got a cast on."

John B just rolled his eyes. "I don't give a shit if she's an axe murderer, okay? I got nothin' to lose, right? You comin' or what?"

Kie grabbed onto JJ's arm and began leading him along. "Come on," she relented, giving JJ close to no room to struggle.

They crossed through the garden, closer to the house.

"So, here's the plan. We need to look for the wheat near the water like it said in Denmark's letter," John B said. The four of them leant their heads together like they were an all star football team discussing their next play.

"Okay, like, what kind of water? Like, pond water?" Pope chimed.

"Bong water?" JJ chuckled, unable to help being snarky, even in this situation.

"No. It– it just said look for water, okay?" John B nodded.

"That's the shittiest secret message ever."

"You wanna complain a little more, Kie? Nobody said it was gonna be easy," John B growled. Then he and Kie split off from the group. Pope and JJ stood up and watched the two hormonal teenagers walk in opposite directions in the garden.

"I'll search the northeast quadrant, you search the northwest?" Pope suggested. JJ's jaw practically dropped.

"You mean the _decapitation_ quadrant!?"

Pope wasn't listening. He'd walked off and missed JJ's – extremely _valid_ – complaint. As JJ walked off to the section of garden he'd been assigned, he muttered to himself about beheadings and how if he came back without a head, maybe his friends would _finally_ start taking him seriously.

JJ couldn't help the way his eyes drifted to the house and its boarded up windows. If he stared for long enough, he could have sworn he saw something move. Which was why he'd bolted back to his friends quick smart.

"Hey, psst! Hey, come on. It's the only place we haven't looked," John B whispered, pointing to the basement. JJ bristled as his friend destroyed the lock on the door. After sharing a fleeting glance with Pope – one that showed just how much he didn't like this idea of John B's – they followed him into the basement. Kie was right on their tails.

"Down came Mrs. Crain and cut off all our heads. Up came the sun and dried up all the blood," JJ whisper-sang to himself. Pope nudged him.

"Can you stop?"

JJ rolled his eyes but nodded. The old wooden floorboards creaked beneath them as they moved through the basement. Turning on torches to stop them from tripping over hordes of crap, the two took cautious steps throughout the building.

"See any water?" Kie whispered hopefully. JJ shook his head to himself as a few mosquitos buzzed in his ears. "Another dead end?"

JJ raised a hand to the pipes that connected to the house above them. "There's not even water on the pipes."

"There's no water here," Pope sighed in agreement.

"Not a _dropamino_ ," JJ nodded.

Kie turned on her heel to look at John B inspecting a pile of broken wooden chairs. "Know why we didn't find it? Bad karma."

"Oh, God. Here we go," John B rolled his eyes.

"You know, we had a good thing going. And then you decide to rope in _Barbie_ , and now the trail's gone dry. Coincidence? Probably not," Kie snarled.

"This is exactly why I didn't wanna tell you about Sarah."

Pope and JJ found themselves helpless again, subjected to just watching these two almost-ex-lovers hash it out. Did one kiss shared between them make them ex-lovers? JJ wasn't sure but it was the best explanation he had.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," John B scowled. "What the hell's the deal with you two?"

"Nothing." Kie scowled at the floor.

"Nothing? Is it because I kissed you? Is that the problem?"

JJ gasped as he watched Kie raise her hand and slap John B square across the cheek. Pope hissed beside him as they watched.

"Oh, shit! That echoed, dude!" JJ whispered under his breath.

"Stop treating me like I'm some girl that's obsessed with you instead of your best friend who's actually trying to look out for you," Kie snarled at John B. The boy just clenched his jaw.

"Did you, uh... hit me?"

Kie raised her hand again and JJ was afraid she might slap him again.

"Skeeter."

"Skeeter?" John B rose an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Yeah, you see it?" She rose a brow. JJ was practically holding his breath when John B slapped Kie across the face.

"No—" Pope tried to step in, but JJ grabbed a hold of his friend's arm.

"Where's your proof?" Kie said, rolling her lip between her teeth angrily. John B held up his hand to show a mashed bug in his palm.

"Skeeter."

"Yeah?" Then she hit him again in the side. "There was probably one right there."

JJ and Pope rolled their eyes, their attention moving elsewhere as their other two friends forgot their argument and it turned into a play fight. They had a job to do that was more important than girlfriends and boyfriends and kisses and all that other bullshit.

They needed to get the hell out of there before Crazy Crain came and found them.

"Why are there so many mosquitoes in a basement?" JJ heard Pope ponder. JJ shrugged, brushing away the ones around his head. They must have disturbed them or something when they'd walked into the basement.

Maybe Old Lady Crain had trained them to be her first line of defense! Either way, JJ wanted out.

"Dude. I know, seriously. Tiny vampire bats, just leave me alone," he said, swatting around his face. "Oh, my gosh! Okay, can we leave? 'Cause I'm already itchin' to leave. Hah? Punny." He laughed at his own joke, looking around.

Pope was looking at something on the ground. JJ found a creepy old baby doll.

"I just found Mrs. Crain's voodoo doll, guys," JJ warned.

"Oh, shit," Kie giggled, looking up from her fight with John B as JJ shone his torch on the doll.

"All right, can we leave this? 'Cause this is getting–"

Before JJ could finish his sentence, he saw Pope drop a rock between two floorboards.

"Hey, guys..." Pope started, then he was moving shit off the few floorboards he stood on. They were arranged in an odd enough circle that JJ knew something had to be up with them. Something weird. _The gold?_

"Hey. Help me move this," Pope said.

JJ jumped into action, shoving shit away to help his friend.

"Guys! Guys!" Kie whisper yelled. "Keep it quiet! She's probably right upstairs."

JJ and Pope shoved the loose floorboards away and JJ's jaw dropped when they revealed a long stone drop beneath them. Pope had been standing right over it. If one of those old rickety floorboards had broken, he'd have plunged to his death.

"Well, well, well..." Pope muttered, shining his torch down the stone well. They couldn't see the bottom, but if the sound it had made when Pope had dropped that rock before was anything to go on, there was water down there. It was a well, after all.

"That was a good dad joke," John B smirked. JJ just grinned at his friends.

"They built this part of the house right over it," Kie said.

"This is where she hid the bodies," JJ muttered, eyeing his friends. Pope waved him off.

"Oh, dude, come on."

"Stop," Kie added. JJ shook his head.

"No, I'm dead serious," he went on.

"Stop it!"

"It was never an outhouse," JJ said. He was sure of it.

"She probably doesn't even know it's here," Kie rolled her eyes.

"So... we found water," Pope said, ignoring Kie and JJ's small argument that was sure to break out.

"We're gonna need a really big rope," John B nodded. JJ's head turned as he thought he heard something crack behind him. Someone was here...

"Alright," JJ said. "Well, can we get the hell out of here, then?"

The others were quick to follow, covering the well back up and rustling out of the basement. None of them noticed the pair of curious eyes that had been watching them this entire time. Not even JJ, who was normally the only one to really see her.

Katie Daykin watched the four Pogues from behind a pile of old furniture at the back of the basement that none of them had thought to inspect.

She'd heard their voices when they were walking through her old Gran's back garden. The garden that Katie had been meaning to take care of in the last year but never had time for...

Then she'd gone through the inside basement door to find them down there, looking down the old well. They were wrong. The house hadn't been built over the well unknowingly.

They'd always known it was there, and in the old days, the estate had used it as their own personal fresh water source, because it was fed from a natural spring. But when the proper plumbing had been installed decades ago, the well had been plugged from the spring and been covered over so that old Gran didn't go diving down into it accidentally.

Not that Gran spent time in the basement anyway.

Katie didn't know what the Pogues could possibly want with her grandmother's basement well.

She frowned as she heard the four of them bicker as they walked back to their van. She figured it was a question and a conversation for another day, because she wasn't really actually all that bothered by JJ and his friends breaking into her basement.

Right now, Granny Crain needed lunch, and so did Katie.

§

JJ and the rest of the Pogues had made it back to the Chateau and were hanging out on John B's patio, though, John B had walked off minutes ago and was nowhere to be seen. JJ and Pope were taking bets on where he'd gone.

"Mrs Crain came and nabbed him," JJ said. Pope rolled his eyes.

"You're still on that? No. Not possible. She couldn't have gotten here this fast. He was obviously eaten by a very large catfish after walking too far off the pontoon," Pope said, seriously.

JJ rolled his eyes.

"If he's gonna be eaten by anything in the marsh, then it had to be Bobby."

"Who?" Pope rolled his eyes.

"Bobby. You know...? The shark?" JJ shrugged.

"You two are idiots," Kie rolled her eyes. She was twisting a piece of hair between her fingers.

"Oh yeah? Where's he gone then?" JJ countered. "What could possibly be more important than discussing that hole in the ground we just discovered?"

Kie opened her mouth to answer but was cut off as John B was seen walking around the house and towards the screen door. Only, he wasn't alone.

"No effing way! You brought her here?" Kie screeched as John B opened the door and he and Sarah Cameron fell onto the couch. Kie got up quick smart, putting space between her and the other girl. "So, what? She's in on this now?"

Pope exchanged a look with JJ, who was too shocked to answer – well, actually not really all that shocked, John B was just thinking with his dick again.

"Look, all I care about is her cut comes out of your share," JJ said, looking pointedly at John B. JJ couldn't be sure how much he had already told Sarah Cameron, or how much he'd promised to cut her in, but JJ could be damned if his friend thought _he_ was taking anything less than a hundred mill.

"You know, I don't remember taking a vote," Kie snarled. "This is our thing. A _Pogue_ thing."

"I gotta say, I'm just a tad uncomfortable with all of this," Pope agreed with her.

"Thank you!"

"When are you not uncomfortable!?" John B said, eyebrows lifted at Pope. Pope just shrugged.

"I dunno. I rode here on the back of JJ's bike pretty comfortably."

JJ grinned. "It's true. Most relaxed I've ever seen him."

John B rolled his eyes. "That's cute, guys."

"You know we were all extremely comfortable until you brought _her_ ," Kie snarled, glaring at Sarah. The other girl huffed hotly.

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here!" She cried out angrily, arms crossed across her chest. Normally, JJ would have kept an eye on how it made her cleavage bounce, but now, he barely noticed.

"Then leave," Kie told her flatly.

Sarah just scoffed, looking over at John B. "I told you."

"Told him what, exactly? That you're a liar?" Kie scowled.

"No, that you're a shit-talking bitch, Kiara!" Sarah snapped. JJ's eyebrows lifted and Pope nudged him with his elbow. Shit was about to go down. JJ hadn't seen a good catfight in years.

"When have I lied?" Sarah said.

"My money's on Kie," JJ whispered to Pope.

"You get somebody close to you for like a month–" Kie started.

"I didn't lie about shit—" Sarah yelled.

"Everybody shut up!" John B cut in. Right before it could get interesting – bad timing as always. "Kie, you are my best friend, right? And Sarah, you're... you're my..."

Sarah looked up at John B hopefully.

"Say it," she encouraged, her voice small.

"You're my girlfriend."

JJ whistled lowly. It had been what? Two, maybe _three_ days? These two moved fast.

"Ohh... that's new," Pope grinned.

" _She's_ your girlfriend now?" Kie glared at John B. "What was all that talk about you were just using her for information? Get a map, cut her loose?"

Sarah turned to glare at her 'boyfriend', too. "You said you were using me?"

"No–"

"Yeah, you kinda did," JJ, Pope, and Kie said at the same time.

"You said those things," Pope nodded.

John B got up from his seat angrily, hurriedly, as if to make a point. "Look, love just walked in, okay?" he tried.

"Oh, _vomit_ ," Kie muttered, retching.

"I didn't expect it. It just– it kind of happened," John B went on. "And I'm not gonna deny it. Right?"

"Oh! That's corny," Pope whispered. Kie mimicked another retch.

"Look, cut the bullshit, John B," she scowled. "If she's in, I'm out."

"Kie, I'm not doing this. I can't!" he said.

"You are gonna decide. I'm very interested, actually. Me or her?" she demanded, eyeing him. John B's answer was too quick for JJ's liking.

"Both."

JJ whistled. "Went for the Hail Mary," he smirked, chuckling under his breath. Pope laughed at it too, but the other three ignored them.

Kie gave John B one last look before storming out the door. JJ watched through the screen as she walked down the jetty towards the pontoon to be alone.

Sarah turned to John B. "What was it you said? 'It'll be cool, right?'..." She shook her head before pulling herself up from the couch. "I'm gonna leave."

"Sarah, don't," John B tried, reaching out to her, but she shook him off, too.

"Gonna let y'all chat. Let me know," she rolled her eyes as she walked inside the Chateau. And then all of a sudden, John B went from having two girlfriends to zero. Talk about bad luck...

"I'd just like to say, I think you handled that beautifully," JJ chided. John B levelled him with a glare but JJ didn't care. Then John B stormed off, too. He went down to the shed where the canoes were to do God knows what.

Pope went to comfort Kie, which left JJ with nothing to do. He flicked his lighter absently between his fingers as he relaxed back into his chair. He really wished he had a smoke right about now.

John B eventually came back. He cooled down much faster than the girls were ever going to. The boys headed inside to John B's kitchen to talk. Then Pope came back from the jetty.

"What'd she say?" JJ couldn't help asking. He tossed Pope a bottle of water from the fridge before getting himself a beer.

"That you're an idiot," Pope said to John B.

JJ whistled and shook his head, then took a swig from his drink. "It's a no-brainer. You're picking Kie."

"Mm-hmm," Pope agreed. John B just shook his head from where he was perched on the bench.

"Look, I can't make a decision."

JJ rolled his eyes. "So what? We're just dead in the water because you're pussy-whipped? We can't do this without Kie, and you know it."

"And I can't do it without Sarah. Okay? They both have to be in on it."

JJ rolled his eyes again. His friend was being an idiot.

"Well, good luck with that," Pope said.

"You know what? I know this was my fault, all right?" John B said, getting down. "But it's _our_ problem. I've got a plan. And you two shitheads are gonna help me out."

Then JJ and Pope were left to watch as John B strutted out of the kitchen. The two boys shared a look, a roll of their eyes and a laugh at their idiotic friend. Then they finished their drinks and followed him outside, ready to hear his fantastic plan.

Turns out the plan was stupid.

They were going to nick Heyward's boat, pretend it was broken down, and then get Kie and Sarah to bring the _Pogue_ to help fix it. Then they were going to trap Kie and Sarah on Heyward's boat without keys or plugs or fuel or a way to escape and leave them in the marsh for the night to hash it out.

JJ was pretty sure that if they left Kie alone with Sarah, she would kill her, but John B was set on the plan and nothing would change his mind so, _out_ _they_ _went_ to secure the boat in the marsh.

Pope was tasked with going to get the girls.

They all arrived out at Heyward's boat in the marsh just as the sun was setting.

"What happened?" Kie demanded as she walked into the helm of the boat to find JJ and John B crouched on the floor, inspecting the motor.

"Uh, the alternator's, uh, not alternating anymore," JJ bluffed. He sent John B a worried glance, which his friend caught easily.

"It's not charged," John B supplied.

"Did you check the plugs?" Kie rolled her eyes. JJ grinned.

"No. No, you should check 'em," he said, getting up and handing her the random screwdriver he'd been holding. "Yeah, uh, give it a whirl."

"You guys are useless," Kie muttered, crouching down. John B nodded as the two boys began running away from her.

"Sorry about that," he called as her back was turned.

"Uh... is this a joke?" Kie yelled, noticing there was nothing wrong with the motor and that at that moment the boys were sprinting away.

"Go, go, go, go!" JJ yelled.

"There are no plugs, like, at all," she cursed.

"Sayonara!" John B called as he and JJ flipped off the side of the boat.

Kie ran out after them but they were already climbing into the _Pogue_. And that's when Kie heard the banging. Kie was about to find the next extra fun surprise that the boys had left for her.

"John B! Let me out!"

Kie pulled open the manhole to see Sarah stuffed inside.

"What the hell? Guys!" she called out after them, rushing to the side of the boat to see the boys beginning to drive away in their boat.

JJ couldn't help but laugh at the panic stricken expressions on the girls' faces. Maybe this idea of John B's wasn't so bad after all...

"Are you serious?" Sarah demanded.

"Are you joking? Get your asses back here!" Kie yelled.

John B shook his head. "We can't. Not till you two figure it out!"

"I will kill every single one of you!" Kie promised, a deathly glare in her eyes.

"There's food in the cabin, and JJ rolled a blunt!" Pope called out, steering them further away. Sarah was undressing, ready to jump in after them.

"Hydroponic!" JJ agreed, waving into the air as the two girls bickered amongst themselves. And those two had better appreciate that good weed and not waste it. JJ had been saving it for a special occasion and he didn't need them throwing it in the marsh before it could be enjoyed.

"Godspeed!" Pope called with a laugh.

"Love you, guys! Bye!" John B yelled as they got further away. Sarah jumped in and JJ whooped in celebration. She'd never catch them and she knew it. By the time the boys made it back to the Chateau, they were bent over with laughter.

JJ couldn't even believe that that had actually worked on them. They'd have to hold tight 'til morning because JJ wasn't prepared to drive out anywhere. He had a case of beer waiting for him and a hammock that was calling his name.

The boys were about to get _lit_ tonight, and JJ was sure to dream of a curious girl with brown eyes, like he had every night for the last few weeks.

When dawn came, the boys had scrounged themselves out of bed – or more accurately, Pope had thrown a bucket of water over JJ and John B to get them up – and they'd all started out on the marsh.

"Uh-oh!" Pope called out with a grin when they got close enough that the girls could hear them. They were waiting on the deck, probably had been watching the dolphin near them as it swum by.

"You forget your keys or something?" JJ chided as they sidled up to Heyward's boat.

"You need a tow?" John B grinned. The two girls did _not_ seem impressed. The both steeled glares at John B. "You gotta admit it was funny."

"John B," Kie warned.

"Uh, what's that?"

"Mastermind, huh?" she snarled.

John B just flashed her a megawatt smile. "I'm always plannin'."

Kie just rolled her eyes, stepping into the _Pogue._ "Some patriarchal bullshit." She crosses her arms over her chest as she sat down indignantly.

Sarah agreed as John B helped her into the vessel. "Yeah, that sucked."

"You still love us though, right?" JJ grinned.

"Yeah, whatever," Sarah rolled her eyes. John B caught the girl's arm.

"Hey, you still hate me?"

"A little," Sarah nodded. "We're both gonna get you back when you least expect it."

JJ whooped at the threat.

"Yeah, watch your back, boys," Kie said darkly. JJ just grinned.

"Well, I for one welcome that challenge," Pope grinned. JJ nodded with a smirk, sharing his sentiment. "So, did you guys, you know..."

"Reconcile our differences?" Kie supplied. "Mm-mm. Not even close."

Sarah sighed. "But we're... _willing_ to work together."

JJ's jaw dropped sarcastically, his eyes light. John B gave him a high five. "You know what? That's a victory."

"Yep," JJ agreed.

"Woogity-woogity-woogity!" Pope celebrated. JJ just gave them all a pointed look.

"Know why?" he grinned. " _Hydroponic_..." he smirked and mimed taking a hit. Pope just rolled his eyes.

"Don't say that."

"Alright, shut up," John B rolled his eyes as they all headed back towards the Chateau. "You guys ready to jack someone up?"

"Yeah, whatever," Kie rolled her eyes.

"Let's get it!" JJ cheered, letting out a series of whoops.

§

Sitting in the van outside the stone wall of old Crain's house at midnight and JJ's fingers were shaking. He hid them behind his back so the others couldn't see. These were prime axe-murdering hours and JJ sure didn't want to be the next victim but he didn't have a choice in this.

"You got rope?" John B asked. Pope nodded.

"Got it."

"Grappling hook?"

"No grappling hook," Pope said. "We're not Batman."

JJ rolled his eyes.

"Pulley?"

"Check," Kie chimed.

"Dark clothes?"

"Got it," Sarah beamed, posing in her crimefighting outfit – i.e. a hoody and a pair of sweats.

"Flashlights?"

"Check," JJ nodded, holding up four. He was wearing one on his head too, handsfree.

"All right, good. We're ready," John B grinned, voice low. The five of them beamed at each other, excitement and a healthy undercurrent of fear running through them.

"Let's go get rich, guys," JJ smirked.

"Yeah," Kie nodded. "Hell, yeah."

"Let's roll."

They all moved to exit the van but John B held up a hand. "Wait, wait..." he said. "I uh... I wanna say thank you, guys. Seriously. It means a lot to me that you're here tonight."

Kie bit her lip for a moment before nodding. "Always."

"Of course, man," Pope chuckled softly, before the two boys performed the Pogue handshake.

JJ sighed. He wanted to get in there and get out of there as quickly as possible. "All right, are we done with this circle jerk? Can we go do this?"

"Let's get that wheat in the water," Pope grinned as he jumped out of the van. JJ felt his eyes light up.

"Weed? I'm up for weed." He smirked at his friend, who just rolled his eyes.

" _Wheat_. I said wheat."

Then they were jumping over the stone wall. They kept their flashlights low and their voices even lower. That was, until they rounded through the garden and a motion sensor light came on. JJ swore beneath his breath as the five teenagers dove out of the way.

"Flashlights!" Kie whispered desperately as they all tried to turn them off. JJ felt himself panting trying to turn off his headlamp. The damn thing was set to strobe like he was going to a rave or some shit.

"Okay, so she has motion sensor lights," Pope groaned. JJ frowned.

"We could, uh... move really slowly, maybe?" he offered.

Pope just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's not how it works."

John B grinned. "Let's throw a rock at it."

"What?"

Kie deadpanned. "That's a really good idea. Let the _axe murderer_ know that we're here." She sent John B an _'are you fucking stupid'_ look, to which he almost stuck his tongue out at.

"Throw a rock at it?" Pope echoed, shaking his head as if the sheer dumbness of the suggestion was making him question his life choices.

John B sighed. "You have a better idea?"

"Literally anything but that," Kie smirked.

"What about the breaker?" Sarah suggested. JJ had honestly forgotten she was even there. "In the circuit box on the porch. We used to play hide-and-seek here as kids. And if we were brave enough, we'd go all the way up to the porch. I've seen it."

John B immediately shook his head. That idea was even more stupid than throwing a rock. "No, no. You're not going in the house alone."

"Watch me," Sarah eyed him.

JJ bit his lip. "Crain chops people into pieces..."

Sarah rolled her eyes at him. "If you believe that, but she's like what, 85?"

JJ nodded. "Yeah, somethin' like that."

Sarah waved her hands around. "She's probably _barely_ still kicking."

Kie held up her hand. "Here. I'll go with you."

"Okay... We'll wait for your signal," Pope agreed before anyone else could argue. The two girls moved to leave the group, getting up. John B snagged Sarah's arm, stopping her short.

"Hey," he whispered. "Be safe."

Sarah gave him a reassuring smile. "We will." Then she and Kie were running around the side of the house towards the porch.

JJ decided now was a great time to take the piss out of John B. Cradling Pope's face with his palm, he looked the boy dead in the eyes.

" _Be safe_ ," he whispered. Pope mimicked him, a hand on JJ's jawline.

"I'll be so safe. I'll be safe for you," he nodded with a whisper.

John B glared at them both.

"Can you guys stop? Stop! I'm gonna kill you."

Pope and JJ snickered.

"But how would that keep us safe?" Pope asked as the two boys giggled. A few minutes more of JJ and Pope taking the piss out of John B and the amount of cringe that came out of his lips, and then suddenly they heard the sound of a generator powering down and the sensor light turned off.

"They did it. Go time," Pope grinned.

The three boys hurried towards the door that led down from the outside and into the basement. Then they moved over to the well, moving the baseboards aside. JJ handled the rope and moved flashlights around so that they could see.

"Holy crap, you know what this is? It just hit me," JJ grinned. "Pope, look. This is _C.H.U.D._ Full _C.H.U.D_."

John B and Pope shared a look. "What the hell is he talking about?" John B muttered. JJ didn't appreciate when they spoke about him like he wasn't here.

" _C_ annibalistic _H_ umanoid _U_ nderground _D_ wellers? Have you guys not seen that film?" JJ felt his brows crease in question.

"Can't say I have, no," Pope deadpanned. JJ knew he was lying. That was the movie that he and Pope had watched together in fifth grade when John B hadn't been allowed to come to their sleepover. Pope had pissed his pants he'd been so scared.

"It's actually a good film," JJ mused. "It's about cannibals that live in the sewers and under New York City, and it's like–"

"Shut up! Shut up!" John B cut him off, shuddering. "...All right. How deep do you think this is, Pope?"

Pope just sighed as they all looked down the well. "I don't know..."

They stopped for a moment, sharing a look before they all just grit their teeth and got on with it. They had no idea where the girls were, but it looked like they were doing this bit on their own. JJ and Pope started laying out the rope and John B tied it around himself so that they could lower him down.

Then, they braced themselves as John B stood over the edge.

"Hey, boys," he breached their concentrated silence with his wary tone. "I have one request."

"Yeah?" JJ looked up from where he'd been wrapping rope around an anchor.

"Don't drop me," John B said seriously. Pope and JJ grinned before letting the rope slacken for just a single moment, making John B falter.

He glared at the other boys after having let out a help from fright. His grip on the rope made his knuckles white.

"You're gonna die first, for sure."

JJ just smirked, resisting the urge to salute his friend. John B's head then disappeared out of view. When they were through about fifteen feet of rope, JJ grunted. Something didn't feel right.

"Wait, hold on one second. I'm gonna get situated."

"You good?" Pope asked, looking over his shoulder. JJ then felt the world move in slow motion as his fingers unwittingly let go of the rope too quickly. John B yelled from below as the other two boys scrambled to get a hold of it again.

"Oh, shit! John, shit!" JJ cursed. They grabbed the rope, stopping the momentary fall and there was a yelp from the well.

"John B!" JJ grunted.

"I told you not to fucking drop me!" John B yelled.

"You good, man?"

"What the hell was that?" John B yelled upwards, catching his breath. Pope groaned as he held the rope steady.

"Little technical difficulties," Pope winced.

"Alright, well... Keep going, _slow_!" John B relented. JJ was now in a position that didn't feel dangerous anymore, so they kept letting it out slowly for another few minutes.

"Hey. Hey, we got 15 feet left. Are you getting close to the bottom?" Pope called out.

"I can't tell. Just– just keep goin'," John B yelled. His voice was so faint that JJ could barely hear him. The boys did as he asked until he yelled out again. "Whoa! Stop! I'm hangin' over some sewage-water lookin' shit."

Pope frowned. "You want back up?"

They heard their friend take a deep breath. "Keep goin', I guess..."

JJ and Pope nodded. "Nice and slow," JJ muttered.

"Okay... Okay, okay! I'm at bottom!" John B yelled out.

"How is it down there?"

"It's worse than I thought," John B retched.

"You find any gold?" JJ called. He needed this little trip to not be for absolutely nothing.

"Uh, nothin' yet. Wait... I think I felt something with my foot. Here goes nothin'."

JJ listened as the water moved around in the well. Then suddenly, John B was calling out like a man being hunted. "JJ! Hey, pull me up! Pull me up! Come on, man! Go!"

JJ and Pope sprung into action, trying to lift their friend out of the well. Was it possible he was heavier on the way up than on the way down? Sure fucking felt like it!

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" John B yelled. "Wait!... Hey, I think I found something."

"Hey, John B!" JJ called.

"What'd you say?" Pope chimed in.

"Just give me a minute," John B yelled. "Hold on."

Pope and JJ gave each other exasperated looks. Then they felt the rope give way until John B's weight wasn't on it anymore. What the fuck? Had he dropped off. With wide eyes, he and Pope rushed to the edge of the well, shining their torches down to the bottom where they couldn't see. But the darkness swallowed their light until there was nothing but swirling musty air.

"Shit! John B, you okay?"

"Any dead bodies?" Pope called.

There was no answer. JJ felt dread pool in his stomach. What if the worst had happened?

He didn't even have time to ponder that because the girls were crashing and thumping and screaming through some door and into the basement.

"What's going on?" Pope demanded.

"Mrs. Crain!" Kie yelled frantically. JJ held in his squeak of fear at the mention of the old axe murderer. "She's up there! She tried to kill us with a fire poker. Guys, we gotta get _the_ _fuck_ outta here!"

"Yeah, we gotta go. We locked her in the parlor, but we gotta go!" Sarah said, desperate.

"Okay, code red," JJ said, grabbing the rope. "Let's go. John B! Get back on, man!"

"JJ!" John B called out.

"Hold on, man! I'm comin'!" JJ was gonna save his best friend. He was about to let some crazy axe murderer eat him for dinner. Sarah and Kie and Pope got on the rest of the rope and they all hauled. But then they all fell on their asses. John B still wasn't on the rope.

"Where the hell is he?" Pope grunted as he got up.

Then John B's voice echoed up the well.

"I found the gold!"

It was all muffled. JJ couldn't understand what the fuck he'd said.

"Yo, he's drowning!" Kie shook her head. She didn't know either. "We gotta pull him up!"

"Hey, John B! Get back on the rope," Pope yelled. "We're gonna pull you back up, okay, buddy?"

"Come on! Pull!" Sarah yelled as they all got back onto the rope. It was heavy, so John B was back on it – thank fucking God.

Then JJ's ears were ringing and his hands let go of the rope reflexively as a gunshot rang out behind them. What the fuck? Crain was shooting at them? Looking up with wide eyes, JJ saw the shotgun in her hands. He could only see a silhouette of the rest of her, but if she was as crazy as her hair was right now, then the Pogues had little to no chance of making it out of this alive.

_Where the fuck was his gun when he needed it?!_

Another gunshot rang out as the Pogues scrambled for the rope.

"She can't aim for shit," Kie yelled.

"She can't see. She's blind!" Sarah chimed. Another gunshot shut them all up.

"Shit! Go! Go, Sarah!" Kie yelled, pushing the other girl towards the exit. JJ could hear John B grunting as he pulled himself up over the edge of the well.

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" Pope yelled as Crain cocked the shotgun again.

"I don't care if she is, that's buckshot!" JJ yelled. Then the four of them bailed. And they'd left John B behind – _shit._

Wait, no, JJ turned his head as they ran for their lives. He could see John B running after them. He was covered in mud and dripping wet but he was there and fuck! He was alive! And that was all that JJ fucking cared about.

He sailed over the stone wall and practically into the van. He got himself behind the wheel and started it up as the others were yelling and getting in, too.

They could hear old Crain still shooting inside the house, not knowing where to aim. The old bird was blind as a bat but was still shooting because she could still hear them.

"Where is he?" Kie yelled.

"Come on, start the car. Go!" Pope yelled at JJ. JJ did as he was told, turning the key.

"John B!" Kie called out as another gunshot rang out. Would that woman ever run out of bullets? JJ didn't want to stick around to find out.

"Why are we _always_ getting shot at?" Pope said, shaking his head as his arms shook uncontrollably. Sarah was holding the door open for John B and JJ was already drifting away. He wanted to slow down, but he also wanted to get the fuck out of there. They'd already left all their supplies behind so if anyone were to stumble into that basement and see that they were trying to go down into the well...

Well, JJ hoped that they wouldn't try. He didn't know what had taken John B so long down there but if it was because he'd actually _found_ something, then he wanted to keep that to themselves. Didn't need any nosy fuckers getting into their business.

"Come on! John B, run!" Sarah and Kie yelled at their boyfriend. With a slump, he hauled himself into the back of the van, getting mud and shit all over everyone and everything.

"Oh, shit!" JJ called, looking back at them for just a second. He needed to keep his eyes on the road. They needed to get as far away from Crain as they could.

"Oh, my God!" Pope groaned. "JJ, drive!"

"Go, man!" John B relented. JJ stepped on the gas.

"Are you okay? Are you shot?" JJ demanded. They'd all but ditched John B back there. They were shit friends.

"No."

"You good?" JJ asked. Didn't hurt to double check.

"Yeah, yeah."

"I think I'd know if I was shot, right?" Sarah mused, catching her breath as she pat herself down.

"Yo, you look disgusting," Pope laughed, eyeing their dirty friend. His hair was sopping wet and filled with gook and muck and dirt.

"God, you smell like ass. What the hell just happened?" Kie demanded.

"All-time Pogue Hall of Fame, baby," JJ grinned. His stench right now rivalled JJ after the one time he'd jumped into the marsh and unknowingly jumped into a pool of whale gore. It had died somewhere nearby. He'd stunk for days.

"Hell, yeah!" Kie cheered, plugging her nose.

"That bitch is possessed–" Pope grinned.

Sarah nodded. "That bitch can't aim."

"–How does she move that fast?"

"She's possessed," Kie agreed. "She's blind."

JJ grinned. "Like Master Yoda."

"It makes no sense, like scientifically," Pope said. JJ had been thinking it, too, though. For someone who couldn't see, that bitch did move around that house so easily. Even in the basement where they'd been surrounded by mounds of furniture and shit in the way.

Maybe she had the power of the force and just knew where she was going because she could move shit out of the way. Or maybe she was like that little blind earth girl from that avatar show who could see through her feet. _Were all blind people like that_? JJ wondered.

"Oh, my God!" Sarah gasped. "What is that?"

Kie gasped, too. " _No, you didn't!_ "

JJ turned in his seat slightly and saw John B holding up a rectangle of mud. But... if he wasn't mistaken, there was a small glint of shine beneath all that muck and dirt. JJ's jaw dropped.

_Bullshit!!_

"We did it, baby!" John B crowed, pounding his fist into the air as the other Pogues cheered in disbelief. Excitement and adrenaline coursed through the van as they all screamed and cheered.

"Holy shit! Holy shit!" Kie cried.

JJ felt his relief blooming in his chest. A century of searching and they'd been the ones to find it. In less than a month no less! That shit was unheard of! _Call me a professional pirate because I'm rolling in this sunken treasure, baby_ , he cheered to himself.

"That's gold!" Pope yelled.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo!" JJ added to the screams.

"Guys, we're gonna be rich!" Kie screamed.

"Full Kook!" John B cheered, holding up the gold bar.

"Full Kook! Full Kook! Full Kook! Full Kook!"

_Ay-ay-ay-ay!_

The five of them erupted into cheers and laughter, seeing dollar signs in their eyes. Looks like JJ needed to online shop for that Koi pond after all...

•

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Filthy fucking rich, in every sense of the words ;P

**Author's Note:**

> This story is also on my Wattpad at: https://www.wattpad.com/user/QueenHoneeBee  
> or at: https://www.wattpad.com/story/231508129-here-for-you-obx-jj-maybank


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